England to use elite player contracts to lure talent back from France with Junior Kpoku a target

England will try to lure talent back from France in an effort to boost Steve Borthwick’s squad by offering enhanced Elite Player Squad contracts, with prodigious lock Junior Kpoku a major target.

The 6ft 8in lock, who helped England to Under-20 World Championship glory, is under contract at Racing 92 until the end of next season, meaning that Premiership clubs will not be allowed to officially contact him until July 2025.

However, the 19-year-old has been earmarked for senior England honours already, and Telegraph Sport understands both England head coach Borthwick and Conor O’Shea, the Rugby Football Union’s executive director of performance, have visited Kpoku in Paris, where he continues to feature for Stuart Lancaster’s Racing 92 first team.

Borthwick announced at the beginning of September that 17 players would be given enhanced EPS deals, which are designed to give England oversight on strength and conditioning matters and individual development plans for a select group. George Martin, Maro Itoje and Ollie Chessum were the potential locks among that cohort.

But there is scope for up to 25 of these contracts and it would make sense for them, where necessary, to be used proactively as leverage to keep players in the Premiership or ease their return to England.

Sources have indicated that Borthwick and O’Shea have also stayed in contact with Henry Arundell as well as other prospective England internationals based in France.

Kpoku starred at the U20 World Championship as part of an imposing pack and is set to represent England U20 again this season, despite not being part of the U20 EPS that was announced in September, having visited these shores over the weekend.

He attended England’s loss to the Springboks on Saturday evening before catching up with age-grade team-mates including Henry Pollock and Asher Opoku-Fordjour at the Twickenham Stoop after England A beat Australia A.

A graduate of the Saracens academy, Kpoku has plied his trade in France since the beginning of last season when he left Exeter Chiefs for Paris. Over the course of the current campaign, he has made six appearances for Racing 92. All of them have been starts, with four at lock and two more in the back row.

Kpoku open to playing for France

Kpoku will also qualify as a JIFF (joueurs issus des filières de formation) in 2026, which will increase his value to French clubs because Top 14 rules stipulate that match-day squads must average 16 of those players.

In March, during the Under-20 Six Nations, Kpoku told Telegraph Sport that his mind was open to the prospect of playing for France in the future. Clearly, as big admirers of his potential, senior figures at the RFU are eager for that not to happen.

As has been shown from the England A squad, which saw Pollock, Opoku-Fordjour, Afo Fasogbon and Archie McParland all contribute to a 38-17 victory over Australia A, there is a desire to keep together a strong group of emerging players.

The awarding of an enhanced EPS contract, worth around £160,000, would make a return to the Premiership more likely for Kpoku, whose brother Joel was called up by Eddie Jones in 2018 as an apprentice.

Kpoku the brightest talent among a special crop of players

There was a sense of serendipity in the timing and the manner of how England Under-20s muscled their way to the World Championship title in South Africa over the summer.

During an ongoing period in which the senior side continue to be overpowered in big games, essentially getting scrummaged into submission by the Springboks at the two most recent World Cups, a group of brawny forwards propelled Mark Mapletoft’s team to glory.

A bulldozing trio of props in Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Afo Fasogbon and Billy Sela are particularly exciting and seem on the road to being fast-tracked. All three were earmarked for involvement in Sunday’s England A fixture before Sela withdrew through injury.

Junior Kpoku, a rangy and explosive athlete, was another star of that Under-20 World Championship. He, Fasogbon and Opoku-Fordjour were at the heart of a seminal moment in the tournament, when England mounted a monstrous line-out drive to beat South Africa at the death with a pushover try.

While it was only a pool game, the score epitomised an uncompromising and tight-knit team, foreshadowing victories over Ireland and France in the knockout rounds.

Steve Borthwick and Conor O’Shea are desperate to give this golden generation, which also includes Henry Pollock, every chance to thrive. And Kpoku is among the brightest talents of a special crop.

Weighing 18st 12lb, he already has serious heft to lend to the tight exchanges. At 6ft 8in, with considerable spring, Kpoku can be a line-out menace as well. Racking up senior appearances for Racing 92, he will be honing his craft in attritional encounters.

Ollie Chessum’s knee injury on the verge of the Autumn Nations Series has exposed England’s relative paucity of Test-ready locks. All of a sudden, it has seemed like a problematic position for England.

Offers bound to come flooding in

Nick Isiekwe has been covering Maro Itoje and George Martin, with Alex Coles and Charlie Ewels among part of the training squad. An untimely injury deprived Joe Batley of a run-out for England A, who fielded Arthur Clark and Hugh Tizard from the start with Rusi Tuima on the bench. Olamide Sodeke, another of the U20 world-beaters, was invited in to train but suffered an injury.

Kpoku is a rare athlete who could crash into the pecking order provided that he finds a Premiership club to join in the summer of 2026. The offers are bound to come flooding in from July 2025, when teams are allowed to officially approach him about a move from Racing 92.

England preparing an enhanced EPS contract would represent proactive succession planning, because Kpoku is a valuable commodity.