Junior Kpoku, the highly rated Racing 92 second row who qualifies for England and France, trained with Steve Borthwick’s squad ahead of last weekend’s thrilling victory over Les Bleus, marking a major step forward in securing the young lock’s services.

Kpoku, a product of the Saracens academy who joined the club on the Parisian outskirts early last year, is still only 19 and is uncapped, but is yet to be captured by either his birth or residential nation. He has represented England at under-20 level for the past two years – and is currently serving a three-match suspension for a red card received on the opening round of this year’s age-group Six Nations – but has left the door open for France, having received an approach from head coach Fabien Galthié.

However, Kpoku has been earmarked for senior England honours already, and Telegraph Sport understands that both England head coach Borthwick and Conor O’Shea, the Rugby Football Union’s executive director of performance, have previously visited Kpoku in France, where he continues to feature for Racing 92’s first team alongside England players Owen Farrell and Henry Arundell.

Those visits led to an invite to Borthwick’s camp at Pennyhill Park, where Kpoku was involved in preparations for last Saturday’s victory at Twickenham, training with the squad on Tuesday as England required an extra body for forward drills. It is the first time that Kpoku has trained with the senior England cohort, although he has never been listed as an official member of an assembled squad.

In a March 2024 interview with Telegraph Sport, Kpoku, the brother of former Saracens second row Joel, said: “At the moment, I’m taking things one step at a time. I want to finish off with the Under-20s. I have one more season with them. Maybe England is on the cards, maybe France is on the cards. I don’t know yet. I haven’t spoken to Steve [Borthwick] yet, but I’m still young. Time will tell, really.”

Kpoku is under contract with Racing 92 until 2027 and qualifies for Les Bleus on residency in 2026. Currently, the teenager would be considered ineligible for England selection owing to the Rugby Football Union’s policy of only selecting Premiership players. Whether Kpoku would be eligible for selection under an “exceptional circumstances” clause remains to be seen, but that would be unlikely.

‘England is in my blood’

Although still not technically “captured” by either nation, Kpoku has more recently suggested that England would be his preferred route.

“France is just where I play rugby,” Kpoku told the Daily Mail at the end of last year. “It wouldn’t feel right to represent a different country, that I wasn’t born in. I wouldn’t like it.

“France is a great country, but I don’t think the Marseillaise would be for me. Playing for England is in my blood – I was born there, and my parents, my family, my friends are all from there. It’s better for me to represent my own country.”

Pollock eyes summer tour and trains with senior team

Henry Pollock will train with the senior squad at Pennyhill Park this week after impressing in England Under-20s’ opening Six Nations wins over Ireland and France.

Pollock previously trained with England during their Girona training camp before linking up again with the Under-20s. While a senior debut during the Six Nations feels unlikely at this stage, the 20-year-old could well go on England’s summer tour of the United States and Argentina.

England’s 28-player squad is otherwise as expected with two forwards, Tom Curry and George Martin, undergoing separate training programmes from the rest of the squad this week.

Curry, a stand-out player in England’s opening two matches, is undergoing a modified training programme, while Martin is managing a knee injury. Both are expected to be full participants in training next week ahead of England’s match against Scotland at Twickenham.

Players not involved in training this week who were part of the previous 35-player squad include hooker Curtis Langdon (Northampton), props Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Bevan Rodd (both Sale), centre Fraser Dingwall (Northampton) and scrum-half Ben Spencer (Bath).

England’s players returned to training on Wednesday and will remain in camp until Friday, having spent time away from Pennyhill Park following last Saturday’s thrilling victory over France.

Van Poortvliet handed path back to England in eye-catching A squad

One notable shift under Steve Borthwick has been how useful the England A team has become in testing out potential candidates for the Test side, which of course is exactly what it is designed for. Cadan Murley, Tom Willis, Joe Heyes and Asher Opoku-Fordjour all featured against Australia in the autumn A game and have since won senior caps.

England announced on Tuesday that Bath attack coach Lee Blackett, previously head coach at Wasps, will lead the side for the game against Ireland A on February 23, assisted by Red Roses forwards coach Louis Deacon, Northampton assistant coach Matt Ferguson (scrum) and Exeter senior coach Haydn Thomas (defence).

The 25-player group announced on Wednesday features an interesting mix of established players trying to break back into the England side – a bit like Heyes, who has come off the bench twice in this Six Nations but had not featured before that since the autumn of 2022 – and exciting young players.

Capped players on the outside

It is worth remembering that Jack van Poortvliet was England’s first-choice scrum-half heading into the last World Cup, until his desperate ankle injury which led to an eight-month lay-off. Now back and having made 14 starts for Leicester this season, he has watched Alex Mitchell not only overtake him but make the England No 9 shirt his own.

An ill-timed injury playing for Leicester then meant Van Poortvliet missed the Girona training camp, and is yet to have another call-up in this Six Nations. This A game therefore represents a huge chance for Van Poortvliet to push his case.

Tom Pearson (Northampton) and Ollie Hassell-Collins (Leicester) are two more players who fall into this category. Pearson remains excellent and abrasive for Northampton, but has not been capped since the 2023 warm-ups, while Hassell-Collins started that year’s opening Six Nations matches under Borthwick before being dropped. Hassell-Collins’s recent form, with 12 tries in 16 games for Leicester this season, is strong enough for him to deserve a recall.

Still pushing for Test debuts

As discussed in a long read last month, Alfie Barbeary’s potential has never been questioned but the dynamic No 8 is now 24. A big showing in this fixture would certainly help his chances.

Max Ojomoh is another Bath player whose club form has been impressive but is so far yet to be capped. You could make a similar argument about Orlando Bailey, still only 23 but once picked out as Bath’s bright future at fly-half. It is coming up to three years now since Bailey was named on the bench against the Barbarians without getting onto the field.

England appear to be going in a different direction at full-back with Marcus Smith installed there, but Joe Carpenter’s strength in the air and finishing make him an intriguing option. A mention as well for Harlequins flanker Jack Kenningham, a really impressive player who unfortunately is competing in a stacked position group.

Bolters

The A squads always include a few unpolished diamonds. Northampton props Tarek Haffar and Luke Green have big potential. Thomas Lockett, another Saints, is 6ft 7in and can properly shift.

Joseph Woodward has impressed at inside centre in his first season as a senior player at Leicester, praised for having time on the ball. Lumping George Hendy into this category feels a bit unfair after his final heroics for Northampton last year, but the 22-year-old has quietly remained in good form, with six tries in nine games for the club.

Dual-qualifiers

Playing for the England A side now means a player is captured and can only play for England, given the A side last year were deemed to be “the next senior XV-a-side National Representative Team of a Union” under Regulation 8.2. For some players in this squad, that means being selected is an interesting proposition.

For example George Kloska, the Bristol prop named in the squad, reportedly qualifies for Ireland but would be captured by England if he plays.

Will Porter, the impressive Harlequins scrum-half born in the United States, and Greg Fisilau, who qualifies for Tonga, both played in the A game last November and were therefore captured.

Hassell-Collins is a trickier case. The Leicester wing qualifies for Wales through his grandmother and told Telegraph Sport last year he would be open to playing for Wales if his England career was over.

Having been capped at the start of 2023, assuming that England A are still designated as England’s next senior XVs side, then playing in this fixture would interrupt Hassell-Collins’s three-year stand-down period, resetting it to three years again if he still wanted to play for Wales.