Jonathan Joseph: The Missing Link?

When Jonathan Joseph walked off the field at Twickenham on Valentine’s Day, he’d found an entire nation had fallen in love. In love with a man who had just put in a man of the match performance with his fleet-footed, fluid, and lightning quick style of play. The tabloids are already touting him as the new Jeremy Guscott. One thing is for sure, the young Bath centre has arrived in international rugby.

The 23-year-old has so far been the stand out player in the Six Nations for England, and possibly the whole tournament, scoring three tries, and has left the nation feeling like there is no hole at all left by Manu Tuilagi who has sat out the tournament so far due to a pelvic injury.

It’s been a sharp rise to fame for Joseph, with the former London Irish man the top-ranked centre in the country in the Aviva Premiership, forming a terrific partnership with Kyle Eastmond, and seemingly making him an integral part of England’s future.
Originally it may not have been Twickenham where he would be representing his nation however, with both Derby County and tennis coach Ashley Broomhead having high hopes for him. Broomhead even thought he was actually better than Murray when the two were just young players in the national futures scheme. Joseph is really a multi-talented sportsman!

A place at the academy at Pride Park followed before eventually settling on rugby with the London Irish development squad. But it was perhaps through dance where he found his rhythm, a rhythm that tore through the Italians just a few weeks ago.
Taking up dance in high school, he developed quick feet that stood out like nobody else in the country, earning call ups to England in his age group and breaking into The Exiles first team in 2009. His youth coach at the club, Justin Bishop, said, “If you had to single out one outstanding attribute it was his feet.
“He could double step you and you wouldn’t know which way he was going to go.”

A skill now noticed by world rugby. Many believe Joseph could be the key link to not only winning the Six Nations (they are favourites to do so with Betbright) but England could also win the World Cup on home soil this year should they overcome the monumental challenge of beating the All Blacks.
There’s still plenty to play for between now and then but England look up for the fight.