Like any young player, England U20s back row Greg Fisilau has dreams of going all the way in the sport but says his biggest inspiration is putting his family in a better place.
Fisilau’s family originate from Tonga, with his dad former Plymouth Albion centre and Tongan international Kenni Fisilau. Greg says he owes everything to his father, who started training him as soon as he was able to crawl.
He said: “He’s been a big part of my career and I owe a lot to him. Like most dad’s he humbled me really quickly and made sure I wasn’t getting too big headed. Since a young age he was always pushing me to train to the best of my ability. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now without him.
“I grew up in Plymouth and my first club was Devonport Services. I started there at U8’s as my dad only wanted me to start playing when it got to contact. He didn’t want me playing touch or tag rugby because he didn’t want me to develop bad habits like grabbing onto people.”
Fisilau, 19, is a product of the Wasps academy and has played in three Premiership Cup games, while also testing the waters in the National Leagues at Birmingham Moseley last season.
He said: “We’ve moved into the new training ground at Wasps which has been unreal. The facilities there are second to none and everything is setup so you can be the best you can be, and there’s no excuses to slack off. All the senior players are good to the young boys. The staff are great because every one of them you can go and have a chat to even if it’s little conversations about nutrition or psychology. Everything’s laid out for you.
“Moseley was good but it was a tough start coming in as a young kid into a top National 1 side and it was difficult to get game time. You’ve got to stick at it, keep working hard and hopefully you’ll get rewards. I didn’t get too much game time at the start of the season but I started to get a bit towards the end which I enjoyed.”
Fisilau has five England U20s caps after appearing in both the Six Nations and Summer Series earlier this year and the No.8 enjoyed the ‘superstar’ feeling.
He added: “When you’re in the international setup, their priority is you basically so you get treated like a superstar everyday which is nice. Similar to Wasps, all the staff and coaches are good to you and all the boys are there to learn from each other. There’s competitiveness as people are fighting for spots but at the same time everyone’s got a good energy about them.”
Fisilau has joined Championship outfit Ampthill on loan this season and hopes to impress Alan Dickens enough to select him for another year in the U20s setup. “Hopefully I can get my best foot forward and then we’ll see what happens. Similar to everyone else long-term, I want to get into the England team and get hold of a World Cup trophy, but the biggest thing for me is putting my family in a better place. That’s my biggest motivation,” he said.
