Despite joining rugby relatively late, 22-year-old loosehead prop Tumy Onasanya has flown through the England age groups and is ready to capitalise on his breakthrough last season.
With senior looseheads Bevan Rodd and Ross Harrison both injured, Salford-born Onasanya will have plenty chances to add to his 20 senior Sharks appearances and put himself in England contention having converted to rugby union aged 16.
In his first run of senior games last season, he was tasked with propping against some of the best in Uini Atonio, Andrew Porter and South African side the Stormers, but he was able to prove his scrummaging pedigree and, after making a ‘pact’ with Ben Bamber to put in the extra graft, he earned a contract extension until 2027.
Weighing in at 19 stone, Onasanya is a frighteningly powerful athlete with the second highest standing jump in the whole Sharks squad, and he needed every bit of that force in that breakout stint.
“Atonio with Will Skelton behind him – it just felt like he wasn’t moving!” Remembers Onasanya. “I’d have written me off as well, but I’m glad I manned up, went toe-to-toe with them”.
Competing against such big names – literally – is no mean feat itself but doing it with relatively limited propping experience makes it even more noteworthy. Onasanya spent his childhood playing rugby league before getting a contract with Warrington Wolves, but deferred to union aged 16 after a friend took him to a session at Leigh, which he enjoyed more.
“I had no experience playing prop before that”, he says. “I’d played prop in league, but they’re so different. It was a big, difficult change but I liked it, I had a lot of good, experienced coaches.”
One such coach was current Sharks forward coach Neil Briggs, who has been with Onasanya “since day one”, and is “always in my ear letting me know what I can do better”, and with his help Onasanya was straight into the England u18s setup, before graduating to the 20s.
“It was mental jumping straight into the England age groups”, he continues. “It was an eye-opener of where I needed to be, especially when I didn’t quite get into the teams regularly when I was in the 18s.
“I played a lot at Sale FC after the 18s, Briggsy was coach there and helped me a lot. I got called up for the 20s and we did this trial match against Scotland and I really stood out there to earn myself a spot in the summer tour, then I started every game there.”
Bearing in mind the late switch, immediate success and resilience to get game time, it’s clear that Onasanya has the mentality required to make it to the top, but perhaps most impressively it continues to develop. Upon signing his contract extension last January, Sharks Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson said that his “mentality has completely changed since pre-season”; addressing the change himself, Onasanya said the following:
“Even though I was in England u20s, I always felt like I was coasting, like there was a bit more that I could do but I never really did it.
“So I made a pact with myself, and with Ben Bamber. We made a pact that we’re going to absolutely graft in the off season. We held each other accountable come back and fly in leaner, stronger, faster, fitter.”
That takes us to present day, where Onasanya has developed into a player worthy of a Sharks shirt with, according to Sanderson, “power in attack and a brilliant left foot step – the only thing bigger than that is his smile, his energy”.
“The strengths I have is my energy”, agrees Onasanya. “I love picking people up, getting people fired up. I’d like to say my footwork, I’m quite quick, especially for my size, I do back myself in the loose, but I just want to be known as a grafter.”
