‘As rare as teddy bear s---’: Asher Opoku-Fordjour is English rugby’s new prop sensation

He is England’s next prop idol who has received Joe Marler’s seal of approval. Already a debate is brewing on which side of the scrum his potential will be best fulfilled.

And on Saturday, Sale Sharks teenager Asher Opoku-Fordjour will be coming up against the Leinster loosehead pair of Andrew Porter and Cian Healy, who boast the best part of 200 Ireland caps between them, in just his fourth professional match. “It has been a bit wild,” Opoku-Fordjour tells Telegraph Sport.

The 19-year-old only made his Sale debut last month and then came off the bench two weeks ago against Harlequins where Marler went out of his way to praise his potential in a live interview on TNT Sport (watch video below). “It felt good to hear from someone with such accolades to recognise me and give me a bit of praise,” Opoku-Fordjour said. “It was very cool.”

More impressive still was his performance against Stade Francais where he ended up playing 47 minutes against what many experts rate as the most dominant scrum in the Top 14. Teenage props are not meant to more than hold their own in such circumstances. Hence the hype, although as the youngest of four brothers he has not allowed it to go to his head.

“I don’t tend to swag,” Opoku-Fordjour said. “My brothers keep me grounded. They keep me on my toes and make sure I don’t step out of line.”

And it is not just fans who are excited. On Wednesday at Sale’s sodden Carrington training ground, England scrum coach Tom Harrison popped in to discuss Opoku-Fordjour’s progress, among other matters, with the Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson, although their views are not fully aligned.

“He sees Asher as a loosehead,” Sanderson said. “I disagree. I think we have a lot of looseheads with good mobility and a bit of fast twitch and it’s an easier position to get technically right. Asher can work at tighthead and that is really rare, as rare as teddy bear s---. He could be a good loosehead but similar to others in his position like Bev (Rodd). He could be an exceptional tighthead given his mobility and his ability to stick in the scrum.”

Opoku-Fordjour remains on the outer fringes of Harrison’s radar. Starting tighthead James Harper, who can squat 300kg and bench press 200kg, is a more likely candidate to come into the equation for the Six Nations.

Yet just for Opoku-Fordjour to be heading to a soldout RDS Arena feels like something out of a dream after he started the season at Sedgley Park and Sale in the National Leagues. “At the start of the season, I wanted to cement my spot at England Under-20s and train more often here,” Opoku-Fordjour said. “Maybe I thought I could get involved in the squad training wise. I certainly did not see what I am doing happening now so quickly. It has been an awesome opportunity. I just had to take it. Coming up against Healy and Porter, that’s a massive challenge. Hopefully I will just do my job.”

‘I started off on the wing’

None of this was predestined. When Opoku-Fordjour started playing rugby at 10 for Broadstreet Rugby Club, he was nowhere near the front row. “I started off on the wing, then I went to the centres, then I went to flanker, then I was a hooker, realised I couldn’t throw, so I ended up at prop,” Opoku-Fordjour said. “It was a long, winding road to find my right home.”

Nor was he seen as a superstar in the making, at least at first. He was let go from Worcester Warriors academy and then needed a bit of a kick up the backside from Wasps academy coach Richard Beck. “I remember he walked me round the pitch and said we see potential in you, but you need to work harder, push yourself harder,” Opoku-Fordjour said. “He compared me to (now Exeter second row) Greg Fisilau as a guy who is a natural talent and has what it takes. At the moment he told me you don’t. From that moment onwards, I latched on to him and he really drove me to be where I am now. He went through all my games with me. He was really good with me and that made me want it way more.”

When Wasps went under, Opoku-Fordjour was not short of offers but chose Sale partly due to the way they pushed their young players. His reputation continued to grow over the summer as he was part of an England front row that forced a penalty try against Ireland in the Under-20 World Championship.

“It just felt awesome,” Opoku-Fordjour said. “That was a great feeling. When you get a good scrum, you want to watch it back and see what you did to make it go forward. My mindset is to want to dominate, go forward and win penalties.”

That will be a tough ask against Leinster, particularly with Sale leaving many of their big guns in Manchester, but as Sanderson says he has yet to find his limit. “We have been quite intentional with his progress and understanding at what level he could tally up. He did it in the Premiership. Then he did it last week in the Champions Cup so we have not found his ceiling yet. Potentially that will be this weekend. Potentially it will be at international level. That’s what’s so exciting.”

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