England want a Skelton or Meafou type – Rusi Tuima is an intriguing project player

A streamlined squad of 19 for this first England training camp suggests that most of Steve Borthwick’s summer tour party will come from the four clubs who have qualified for the Premiership play-offs.

Still, the group assembling at Pennyhill Park combines players likely to make the trip – George Martin and Henry Slade, for instance – among a scattering of future prospects. Rusi Tuima would appear to fall into the latter category as an especially intriguing project for Borthwick and his coaches.

Then again, the 24-year-old may be fast-tracked towards the senior side more quickly. Injuries to Ellis Genge and Ollie Chessum will have caused Borthwick to consider how he adds more carrying to the England pack and whether he needs to reconfigure his back five.

Impress in training and Tuima will climb the pecking order and stake his claim for a plane ticket. He has already exceeded expectations with something of a seminal breakthrough season anyway. His transition from back row to lock, which stepped up last summer, has been an impressive subplot of Exeter Chiefs’ campaign. Consequently, it has also provided Borthwick with interesting possibilities.

Over recent years, as Will Skelton has written his legend at La Rochelle, the France national side has been stockpiling a certain type of second row; bulky boppers who scrummage behind the tighthead prop, add their brawn to mauls and batter bodies on the gain-line and at the breakdown. Line-out jumping is, largely, left to others. These players are mobile, explosive lifters.

The understated excellence of Paul Willemse underpinned the 2022 Grand Slam, with Romain Taofifénua as an able deputy. Posolo Tuilagi and Emmanuel Meafou have emerged to offer imposing power to Fabien Galthié.

Meafou is a mighty player. In the opening stages of the Champions Cup final against Leinster on Saturday, he reinforced as much on both sides of the ball.

Here, from Toulouse’s first possession, he fades behind a decoy angle from Paul Costes that sucks in Jason Jenkins:

Meafou trucks through James Lowe before throwing an overhead, one-handed dummy that is bought by Hugo Keenan. Only then does he release an offload to Juan Cruz Mallía, whose grubber turns Leinster and almost brings about a try:

Minutes later, Meafou’s strength directly yields three points. Watch his initial position in the defensive line:

Leinster move the ball towards the near touchline and Jamie Osborne is shackled by Alexandre Roumat. Robbie Henshaw overruns the ball-carrier, presenting an opportunity for the defence. Meafou seizes it, pouncing towards the ball and forcing two Leinster players, Will Connors and Keenan, towards their own try-line with the help of Roumat.

When Henshaw doubles back towards the ball from an offside position, Toulouse are awarded the penalty:

Now, the official website of Toulouse lists Meafou at 203cm (6ft 7in) and 145kg (22st 12lbs). Exeter’s, meanwhile, suggests that Tuima stands 195cm (6ft 5in) tall and weighs 128kg (20st 2lbs). That would make the latter something of a mini Meafou. Even so, since Joe Launchbury (198cm, 130kg) has seemed to slip off the radar, England have not possessed a bounty of bopping second rows.

Martin, around four kilograms lighter than Tuima, is an exceptional talent. His frame and relish for confrontation allow him to complement lither line-out jumpers such as Maro Itoje, Chessum, Alex Coles, Charlie Ewels and Nick Isiekwe. But Borthwick needs contingencies. And power is a valuable commodity.

Last November, following Tuima’s try-scoring, player-of-the-match performance against Bristol Bears at Sandy Park, Rob Baxter explained that a shift from the back row had allowed the Suva-born England age-grade international to “focus on his strengths – size and physicality”. There was an implication that Tuima could hold more mass, too.

For years, Baxter has balanced his pack in a certain way. Athletic, industrious No 8s like Sam Simmonds, Greg Fisilau and Ross Vintcent have been cocooned by flankers that jump in the line-out and locks who muscle up. Upon leaving the back row, Tuima was asked to concentrate on impact rather than “repeat actions”. He has credited Ross McMillan and Rob Hunter, the coaches coordinating scrums and line-outs at Exeter, with his development.

Across 19 appearances in the Premiership and Champions Cup in 2023-24, Tuima took 30 line-outs. That made him the fourth-most prominent jumper at Exeter behind Dafydd Jenkins (68), Lewis Pearson (56) and Ethan Roots (45). Broadly, Tuima hit rucks and scored tries, bagging eight of the latter. Six could be described as Exeter specials; short-range shunts either from the base of rucks, sometimes with a dummy, or one pass further out.

This one, during a high-scoring shoot-out against Northampton Saints, showcased sleight of hand. From a wide break, Tuima adopts the first-receiver role with Fisilau on his left shoulder and Roots to his right. Watch Sam Graham and Tom Pearson opposite Tuima. Both are sucked in:

Tuima clocks this and feeds Fisilau on his inside, which starts a chain of offloads that eventually lets him charge over the try-line:

A couple of minutes later against Saracens, Tuima linked up with Stuart Townsend to finish off a mesmerising kick-return:

These highlights reflect the poise of a natural footballer, but it was telling to see Tuima selected as a lock for England A in the one-sided win over Portugal in February.

Generally, at the line-out, he was used as a lifter and propelled mauls robustly. He scrummaged behind tighthead Joe Heyes, which led to this spectacular pushover early in the second half:

Before that, he had pursued Harry Randall to receive an offload in the build-up to his own try:

Minutes later, Tuima found himself out wide in a broken-field scenario. He gathered a bobbling ball, spun away from one tackle and flicked a one-handed pass to release Will Muir:

Fielding Tuima at lock in a Test match would almost certainly require England to have at least two other jumpers in the pack, which might prove tricky given there is an abundance of back-rowers such as Ben Earl, Sam Underhill and Tom Curry that would not be go-to targets. Chandler Cunningham-South is prioritising his line-out work. That will prove handy for England.

France’s penchant for lumpy locks has been encouraged by a wealth of springy back-rowers like Charles Ollivon, François Cros, Grégory Alldritt, Roumat and Sekou Macalou. In the England A game, Tuima was paired at lock with Ewels, an elite line-out caller, and had Pearson and Guy Pepper as jumping flankers. A glance towards the future? Perhaps, though the Curry twins are only 25, Earl is 26 and Underhill 27. None of them are going anywhere.

Borthwick is better placed than anyone to figure out a line-out strategy that suits the profile of his pack. And even if this summer proves too soon for a Test introduction, Rusi Tuima is very much in England’s plans.