LONG READ Kepu Tuipulotu: Adele, choosing England, and his 2029 Lions dream

A strange yearning took hold of Kepu Tuipulotu when he watched his boys in blue, black and white take the field for the Premiership final. Tuipulotu was travelling reserve at Allianz Stadium, a hooker whose vast potential and spellbinding skillset has long been coveted, but not quite ready for the front line in England’s showpiece fixture. And so he stayed on the periphery, the scent of battle tantalisingly out of reach, the hits and the tries and the momentum swings he could see yet not influence.

Tuipulotu celebrated as long and loudly as anybody else when Bath clambered back on to the English throne. He did not begrudge a single man on the field their moment but for a young tyro with so much to give and so many worlds to conquer, it was a testing experience.

“I had a bit of a bittersweet feeling,” he remembers. “This is my first season but I’d rather be running onto the field than on the sideline watching the lads run on.

“You don’t use that feeling to just mope around and sulk in training. You say, ‘fair, it’s not my time, but I’ll train hard, have a good World Cup, go back in and deliver at Bath’. I look at myself like, yeah, this should be me running out on the field.”

Tuipulotu, who captains England Under-20s for the first time in Wednesday’s must-win shootout with Australia, is unabashed about his ambition. He played nine games on Bath’s treble charge last term and aches for more. A full England cap is fixed in his crosshairs in the longer term. Even further down the tracks, touring New Zealand with the Lions in four years’ time is at the top of his personal mountain.

“I keep myself accountable to those goals,” he says. “Yes, I want to represent England and yes, the next four years, having that Lions opportunity, and be a regular starter for Bath. I visualise those goals and put myself in those situations. If I’m good enough, I’m ready to go out and deliver.”

It would start off touch, I’d slowly lose my head, be the first one to get bumped off or sat down and then cry.

There are several sides to Tuipulotu, a man whose gene pool is a kaleidoscope of rugby excellence. He was born in Pontypool to Tongan parents; his father, Sione, an ‘ikale Tahi international, choosing Rodney for his boy’s middle name after the Dragons’ home ground. His elder sister, Sisila, plays for Wales. The Vunipola boys, Mako, Billy and Manu, are cousins, as is Carwyn Tuipulotu, tearing up trees in France, Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu, on the cusp of a Test berth for the Lions, and Taulupe Faletau, who has already toured three times.

Family camping trips in North Wales are now the stuff of legend, with a boisterous Kepu always pushing the boundaries.

“We’d have these touch rugby games and I’d be the first one to properly throw my body in but the first one to cry. It would start off touch, I’d slowly lose my head, be the first one to get bumped off or sat down and then cry. Winning was the only outcome.

“I’d hate losing to the point where I’d be crying and stroppy and want to go again and play against my sisters at whatever we did, or against the cousins in a bit of touch rugby. I’d be the most annoying bloke ever.

“Anything I did, I wanted to win. Even playing the Wii with my sisters. If I’d lose, I’d be like, ‘let’s go again’, until the point I started absolutely battering them and they didn’t want to play anymore. I was quite annoying and competitive until I got older and took rugby as a passion and a job.”

Those childhood tantrums have crystallised into a powerful determination. A self-belief which spurs Tuipulotu towards his dreams. He earned a scholarship to Caldicott Prep School, where he shifted from the back-row to hooker, and then on to the prestigious Harrow. His brilliance in open prairie, ball tucked under an arm, a phenomenal array of skills in his toolbox, was never in doubt. The set-piece scrutiny, though, struck him like a freight train.

“Transitioning to playing hooker, I used to hate scrummaging and throwing because the pressure gets to you a little bit. That competitive nature I had overcame all of that. That’s what made me tick, not just being happy about where I was. I wanted to be better than the person in front of me. I wanted to get better at my weaknesses.

“I was quite naïve at the start thinking throwing would be at the back of my mind but as I grew into that position more, yeah, your first role is to throw in and scrum. It wasn’t easy for me. I can’t say I just picked it up. I spent loads of hours at the start with my first team coach at Harrow, first trying to hit the crossbar, then you move into different types of throw, and then it was working with Andy Titterrell and Joe Gray when I first got into England camp.

“The more I saw how far I’d developed with my throwing, the more I wanted to get better, and the more satisfying it was when I hit it and completed the rep. You learn to love what you hate. I learned to love throwing.”

Archie McParland did all of our heads in the first week out here so I hid his mattress in my closet. He came in his room, jumped on the bed and it was just the bed frame, whacked his head.

That’s the serious stuff. There’s also the gregarious, giggling teenager who spreads laughter among the boys with his love of Adele’s power ballads or the occasional wind-up.

“Adele, Olivia Dean, anything lyrical,” he says. “My two sisters rule the household so whatever they’ve got on, I think, ‘pretty good, I’ll give it a listen’.

“I don’t purposely be annoying but I think I just am quite annoying. I try and get a little nibble here and there from the lads. Archie McParland did all of our heads in the first week out here so I hid his mattress in my closet. He came in his room, jumped on the bed and it was just the bed frame, whacked his head. Little things to keep the boys on their toes.”

On the field, you needn’t be a clairvoyant to see the kind of greatness Tuipulotu could achieve. He’s a wrecking ball on the charge, but dynamic and explosive with it, like a rhino wearing ballet shoes. He can offload like a centre and kick like a fly-half, his deft grubber setting up a remarkable try for England against Scotland in the U20 Six Nations.

Unsurprisingly, clamour has grown over his international future. Last spring, while still at school, Warren Gatland wanted him in Wales’ Six Nations squad. Once he’d gotten over the shock, Tuipulotu got down to thinking. He chose to continue throwing his lot in with England rather than the short-term gratification of a potential Test cap in Wales. Still, knocking back one of the professional game’s supercoaches took some steel.

“It was tough,” he reflects. “I lean on my dad quite heavily for guidance and wisdom. The main one was, I was still in school at the time. My mother is quite big on, there’s a life after rugby, you’ve got to have a plan B.

“You back your abilities – everyone should – but having the confidence to make the right decision in my mind, and with my mum and dad backing me, they gave me the confidence to not say yes in terms of sticking with where I was, finishing my upper sixth year and travelling down the path of England rugby.”

That meant staying with Bath, who’d picked him up following the grim demise of London Irish, and where Johann van Graan, the meticulous strategist, has carefully drip-fed him into the first team. He scored a boatload in the Prem Cup, made his Champions Cup debut packing down next to Thomas ‘the Tank’ du Toit, and was given a few enjoyable hit-outs as Bath’s utility forward on the bench in their run to the league title.

For a while, though, Tuipulotu was unsure where things were heading. He looked at the monsters in the Bath pack and the remarkable depth Van Graan had cultivated and wondered when consistent minutes would be his.

“I sat down with Johann after the Pau game in April. Being a hooker, you are still learning until you are Tom Dunn’s age [Bath’s first-choice hooker will be 33 in November]. The quicker I can learn and adapt, the quicker I will play.

I’d get one game then wouldn’t play for a month or two and I’d want to play, but his words to me were, ‘do you trust me?’ I said, ‘yeah, I trust you all the way, boss’.

“The boss has always got a plan. I was quite hesitant at the start. I’d get one game then wouldn’t play for a month or two and I’d want to play, but his words to me were, ‘do you trust me?’ I said, ‘yeah, I trust you all the way, boss’. If everyone buys into his plan, everyone is going in the right direction. Having that trust in him and his process, trusting his vision, and trusting my ability I’ll get a crack. This whole year has been amazing.”

And so to Verona, the scorching heat and a do-or-die meeting with the Junior Wallabies. England, the reigning world champions, were dealt a body blow by a sterling South African revival in their second pool match. The Baby Boks annihilated Australia and have top spot in the bag. Only one of three pool runners-up will reach the semi-finals. England, led by Tuipulotu, cannot afford to falter. How does he plan to shoulder the pressure?

“I try to take a different approach and keep everyone chilled and relaxed and let them be themselves,” he replies. “The one thing I don’t want to do is change anyone. I want to lead from the front but I want to give everyone confidence to execute what they do. The last thing I want to be doing is screaming at lads and getting on top of them – no-one makes a mistake on purpose.

“I know who deals with pressure well and who doesn’t, and how lads need to be to get the best out of them. Being that guy who knows how to control the team, when to say ‘let’s go’ and when to calm it down a bit. I vary how I interact with all the lads to get the best out of us and hopefully get the win.”

A magnetic personality in camp and a talisman on the field, Tuipulotu has his finger on the team’s pulse and his eyes trained on the road ahead.