Martin Offiah’s son to start on wing for England U18s

Tyler Offiah, the son of rugby league great Martin Offiah MBE, is set to make his first competitive appearance for England Under-18s this weekend.

Offiah, like his father, is also a winger and will start on the left wing on Saturday against Wales at the U18 Men’s Six Nations Rugby Festival in Parma, Italy.

Offiah is currently part of the London and South Central academy, which was formed following the demise of London Irish last year and is funded by the Rugby Football Union.

The teenager, who is 6ft 3in, previously attended St Benedict’s School and Wellington College, is currently attached to Ealing Trailfinders. He was previously linked with a move to Bath towards the end of last year.

Martin ‘Chariots’ Offiah is remembered as one of the greatest rugby league players of all time, scoring 26 tries in 33 appearances for Great Britain and a remarkable 186 tries in 159 games for Wigan and 181 tries in 149 appearances for Widnes. He won two league titles with Widnes and a further three with Wigan along with three Challenge Cups, playing alongside Wigan greats including Jason Robinson, Shaun Edwards, Andy Farrell and Va’aiga Tuigamala.

Offiah senior appears to regularly post highlights of his son’s matches on his YouTube channel, including one clip of the younger Offiah scoring two tries for London Irish’s academy against Bristol Under-18s, along with another video of him scoring for Wellington against Sedbergh.

Offiah senior also posted a video message to his son last April alongside Chris Ashton, the former England international wing, who jokingly told Tyler to listen to his father as Ashton had done throughout his career.

Away from rugby, Tyler Offiah is also listed as a model for the Sandra Reynolds Model Agency in London.

Saturday’s game against Wales from the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi will be broadcast live on the Under-20 Six Nations YouTube channel, kicking off at 16.45 GMT. England then face Scotland on Wednesday (12.15 BST) and Georgia the following Sunday (14.30 BST).