The Posolo Tuilagi verdict on becoming an U20s viral sensation

For instance, an Instagram post of the short post-game interview he did with RugbyPass after he had swatted aside the Baby Blacks clocked up more than a quarter of a million views in a couple of days and there were also high numbers for the same interview footage published on the various other social media platforms.

Tuilagi amenably dropped by again post-game on Tuesday to provide another update on how his tournament has gone and he was chuffed to learn about his sudden online popularity. “I don’t know, I don’t really go too much on social media, I don’t really watch all that. Hopefully it is good stuff. Thank you, thank you to everyone,” he beamed.

France, who won the two most recent editions of the Junior World Championship in 2018 and 2019, ended the pool section at this year’s tournament in Cape Town with an unblemished 15-point, three-wins-from-three record. That secured them the No1 ranking for this weekend’s knockout stages and Tuilagi is hoping this class of 2023 can now kick on and fulfil their potential.

“Very proud,” he said after the Welsh had been defeated 43-19 by a French XV that played most of the match with just 14 players following the upgrading of an early yellow card to red. They even finished the contest with just 13 players after another yellow card, but the still managed to score their sixth try despite this two-man disadvantage.

“We played a good team. Wales were very active, very hard at the contact. But it’s about winning and we did. The team had a good structure in place and we were able to find our spot. We are very confident in the team and in the boys that we have. I was confident.

“We are going to take it [the semi-final versus England] as any other game getting ready for it and everyone will just show up for the game and we will see from there.”

How does he rate his own World Cup form? “I have only played two games because I came a bit late. The first one (I was) very happy but there is still lots to work on. My family keeps saying they are proud of me and people have taken me to heart. I want to say thank you to them guys.”