Joe Cokanasiga

Cokanasiga was born in Fiji but before his first birthday, moved to England with his father, Ilaitia, who was in the British Army. He has lived in Germany and Brunei as his father toured those countries and learned to play rugby. They formed a father-son centre partnership for the Army Vets team before returning to the UK in 2013.[5]

Joe's first adult rugby match - on his 17th birthday - was for Old Merchant Taylors' FC on 15 November 2014, vs HAC. OMTs were then playing in London 2NW (Level 7). Joe became the top try-scorer for the club, despite only playing a part of the season. Joe continued to play for OMT and Team Honeybadger 7s throughout 2015, before moving to London Irish.

.[6]

He joined the London Irish academy in 2015 and played for their sevens team in the Premiership Rugby Sevens Series[7] and in October 2016, he signed a two-year deal to stay with the club.[8] He made his debut in the 2016–17 RFU Championship on 30 October 2016 against London Scottish and scored a brilliant individual try beating multiple defenders, demonstrating his raw power and pace.[9]

In 2016 Cokanasiga played for the England U18 side that toured South Africa.[10] In the 2017 Six Nations Under 20 Championship he played in England U20 side against France, scoring a try.[11]

Cokanasiga was called up to the senior England squad by Eddie Jones for their 2017 summer tour of Argentina.[12] When questioned on why he had plucked the player from relative obscurity, Eddie Jones was typically blunt: "He’s big and he’s fast."[13] He did not actually play due to picking up an injury in London Irish's end-of-season playoff battles for promotion from the Championship back to the Premiership.[14]

In November 2018, Cokanasiga was selected to make his international test debut against Japan. Eddie Jones, citing his reasons for the selection, simply stated "He’s got power and he’s got pace, there’s something a little bit special about him". Cokanasiga scored on his international debut in a hard-fought win over Japan.[15] He retained his place for the next match in the Quilter Autumn Internationals, against Australia, and put in a powerful performance capped by a try in the second half.[16]

International tries

As of 26 September 2019 [17]

Try	Opposing team	Location	Venue	Competition	Date	Result	Score
1	Japan	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	2018 Autumn Internationals	17 November 2018	Win	35 – 15[18]
2	Australia	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	2018 Autumn Internationals	24 November 2018	Win	37 – 18[19]
3	Wales	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	2019 Rugby World Cup warm-up match	11 August 2019	Win	33 – 19[20]
4	Ireland	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	2019 Rugby World Cup warm-up match	24 August 2019	Win	57 – 15[21]
5
6	United States	Kobe, Japan	Kobe Misaki Stadium	2019 Rugby World Cup	26 September 2019	Win	45 – 7[22]
7

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