Joe Bailey: 'Maro Itoje is the sort of player I want to be'

Mark Mapletoft’s age-grade Rugby World Cup winners certainly aren’t dawdling in the fuzzy glow of their exploits with England last July in South Africa. It’s full steam ahead as they individually look to accelerate their careers having successfully graduated amid a cacophony of noise at DLH Stadium in Cape Town.

Their second win of the year over France confirmed them as World Rugby U20 Championship champions to add to the age-grade Six Nations title clinched some months earlier in Pau. That bucket list achievement ticked, the next major step is to make it into the adult game and become successful full-time professionals.

For some, representative-level exposure higher up has quickly materialised. Last Sunday, for instance, you had Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Henry Pollock enjoying star roles in the runaway England A win over Australia A, an effort backed from the bench by Afolabi Fasogbon and Archie McParland.

They all now know how possible it is to swiftly achieve, especially Opoku-Fordjour who is starting for Steve Borthwick's Test team versus Japan on Sunday. His rapid four-month journey from age-grade to England seniors has even eclipsed Chandler Cunningham-South's seven-month adventure from playing at the 2023 U20 Championship to making his England Test debut... and he is now set for an 11th Test cap from this Sunday's bench.

The jump from young gun to fully fledged international-level pro isn't the same across the board, though. There are those where the adage is slow wins the race. Take Joe Bailey, who has returned to Exeter Chiefs for his final academy year.

While there was a short run off Rob Baxter’s bench in the recent Premiership Rugby Cup win at Cornish Pirates, his regular action is with Exeter University, mainly their midweek BUCS Super Rugby side but also their weekend National League 2 West team.

“It’s absolutely huge,” he said about the headway briskly made by Opoku-Fordjour and co. “I’d regard them as some of my very good mates, so I couldn’t be more pleased. Very happy for them. I like seeing them go so well but it’s not just for me, it’s the boys coming through into that age-grade as well. You don’t actually realise how close you are when you are playing in that 20s level.”

About his situation, Bailey explained: “I just need a bit more time. Going out on loan and playing for Exeter University is hugely, hugely massive for my development so Chiefs just sending me there week on week, getting game time and getting minutes, getting experience is what I need.

“As much as I’d love to break straight through into the Premiership side, that is not always the story as it is for some people coming out of that 20s side. I’m just trying to keep developing, keep developing physically in the gym as well and then hopefully my time will come soon.”

What was the feedback in Devon when the 6ft 6in Bailey pitched up for his third academy pre-season, returning as an age-grade World Cup winner? “They said they were very pleased with how I went, pleased with how I went the whole of last season and they thought it was a very positive season for me.

“Like they said, it’s just more of the same but I have to develop physically. I’m probably still lacking weight compared to some senior members, so I have got to put that on. I’m about 113 kilos at the moment but my goal is around the 115 mark. They haven’t really said areas of the game I need to improve, it’s just keep doing what I’m doing and keep improving my physicality, stuff like that.”

Baxter isn’t a constant in his ear. “Rob is the kind of guy that likes to leave you alone so you are showing him your true self kind of thing,” Bailey continued. “But I had a chat with him recently and it was good, it was positive and affirming to keep doing what I am doing. It was nice, good to hear.

“My ambition is to break into that Premiership side, I want to be playing Premiership rugby every week, that’s my goal. I want to be a Premiership starter for Exeter Chiefs. My goal is to break into that side as soon as possible and show Rob Baxter what I can do.

“BUCS is widely regarded as a very good standard of rugby, very quick which is similar to the Premiership. Boys in that league are very talented, want to push on and do well. They are fighting just as hard as I am to play well and up their standard.”

Bailey was speaking with RugbyPass over Zoom from his digs with a No4 England U20s jersey hanging in the background over his right shoulder and a No5 Exeter Uni jersey dangling in the distance over his left.

It was a cosier set-up compared to the previous time we caught up. That was in the tunnel at Athlone Stadium in July where the winter weather was continuing into the night not long after the muddied, soaking England nudged an arm wrestle against the Junior Springboks with a clock-in-the-red try.

Ten days after that shivering encounter where the wind was blowing a storm, Bailey became a World Cup final try-scorer and the epic celebrations this victory ignited were recorded for posterity in Embedded, the RugbyPass TV series about England’s Championship-winning campaign. That footage is treasured, especially as memories are hazy.

“It’s kind of almost sad because it’s actually a massive blur for me,” said Bailey reflecting on what remains foremost in his mind about the 21-13 triumph. “I remember rocking up for the final, walking through the tunnel and then after that it’s kind of a blur. I remember scoring my try; it wasn’t the flashiest but it was still brilliant to get over the line.

‘But all I remember was just pure elation after the game. I never really felt happiness like that and I hold the night very dear, it was such a special night. I came off in the final for Olamide (Sodeke) so I was sat on the sideline and then the final whistle went. I just remember how happy the whole bench was and sprinting onto the bench to get around the boys that saw out the game.

“We arrived back at the hotel, everyone celebrating, everybody dancing. We were up for anything really, we were just so happy. We all had a few beers, which were our first beers of the tour, so that was really nice and we all just spent time together, had a nice night and had lots of fun.

“I loved all the boys in that team, it was so special. I will definitely miss Finn Carnduff, he was a really good man and I looked up to him actually. A great leader and he will be one to watch for the future definitely. The coaching staff were brilliant, Andy Titterall and Mark, they will push on to do great things.

“They were coaching England A and they will have another successful year with the 20s. Luckily the defence coach Haydn (Thomas) is at Exeter, so I’m very close with him. I keep a lot of contact with him. But yeah, I miss everyone, it’s hard to pick names.”

That’s the wrinkle with age-grade rugby graduation – the people you spent so much time with are suddenly no longer in your orbit and you get thrust into the more ruthless world of adult rugby. Bailey wouldn’t change a thing, though, about his three-year developmental experience, recalling the buzz of the very first contact.

“It was actually Jon Pendlebury, he sent me a text in 2021 to take part in an England U18 south camp. At the time I couldn’t believe it because that was when I was only breaking into the Chiefs academy. I didn’t have an academy cap, so I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was so happy.

“It was massive, every boy’s dream as a rugby player. You want to play for your country, want to go on and do great things but what comes with that is the pressure you have to carry on your shoulders because you know people are watching. You have got to perform all the time, but I enjoyed that. It was really pleasing.

“It’s hard to summarise (the pathway journey) but I can only look back on it with fond and special memories of the whole three years. When I look back to when I was 18 just breaking through I was so, so, so different. Like maturity-wise, rugby-wise, the way I view the game now is completely different to how I viewed it then.

“That’s probably credit to England and their coaching, what they have done for my game. Just the little minute details of the game that actually matter so much. Like the breakdown, areas of the breakdown that as a second-rower are so important.

“Back then, I viewed it as that is how you keep the ball, but it is so different the way it controls the speed of the game and how you can take people out of the game at the breakdown which creates space out wide or in the middle of the field.

“It’s something that has come to an end. My age-grade journey is over but I can only look back on it with fond memories and be at peace with the fact that it’s over because last year we achieved so much together and there was nothing more you could do at age-grade levels. I’m happy to call it there!”

Bailey is a superstitious guy… all the way through, he played every match in what he called his lucky boxers. “It’s still going on now,” he chuckled. “That first age-grade year when I started breaking through to the academy, that’s why they became my lucky boxers because stuff started happening when I was wearing them. I keep it going but I have to say they are on their last legs.”

Twenty years old since July, rugby has been Bailey’s passion since he was seven. “I originally lived in Bristol and we moved to Exeter, new into Devon. I was bored, annoying my parents in the garden and my dad, having played rugby back in the day, took me down to the local club which was Newton Abbot and I never looked back. Started playing tag, enjoyed it, went all the way through to colts.

“The amount of friends I made out of rugby was a big part of my childhood. The community feel was really good. It was a good club, a nice place to go on a Sunday. You would have a couple of Fanta after the game with your mates and that was good fun. Something to do. I was quite an active kid, often very bored, so I needed a way to burn off my energy. It was a good outlet to do that.”

So too supporting the Chiefs from the terraces as a teenager. “I have got pictures on my phone of me back in the day with Henry Slade and Jack Nowell. I went to quite a few games and always waited around to get pictures and stuff.”

Smoothing Bailey’s introduction to Chiefs was the part he played in their 2022/23 Premiership Rugby Cup success, a nice closing of the supporter-to-player circle. “I actually went to an LV= Cup final (as a fan), I couldn’t tell you what year, but it was pretty cool to play in the same game a few years later,” he explained.

“It was so cool, unbelievable. When I found out I was making my debut at Ashton Gate a couple of months after I joined the club, I couldn’t really believe my name was on the team sheet. I was so excited and it didn’t disappoint. An unbelievable experience.”

If there is an idol to mirror, though, it’s Maro Itoje of Saracens, England and British and Irish Lions fame. “When you watch the game of rugby you will always notice Maro Itoje because he is everywhere on the pitch. His work rate is massive and his number of involvements in a game is absolutely huge.

“That is kind of what I aspire and take pride of in my game. Defensively he is very solid, very dominant in collision and in the breakdown creates a lot of turnovers, That’s the sort of player I want to be.”