Young Gun: Javiah Pohe – Leicester and Nottingham centre

Breaking into the Leicester Tigers first team is no easy feat so Javiah Pohe is biding his time playing for Nottingham in the Championship where he is learning about the senior game.
Used only twice by Richard Cockerill this season, against Bath in the Premiership and London Irish in the LV=Cup, the 20-year-old powerhouse has been getting game time with the Green and Whites on a dual-registration.
In recent weeks, Pohe has managed to earn a starting role for Martin Haag’s side with three consecutive starts at inside centre before today’s clash against Plymouth Albion and another start in the No.12 jersey.
“It’s been great for me to be at Nottingham as it allows me to get some game time which is all I want,” he told The Rugby Paper. “I love rugby and I just want to be on the field playing whether that’s with Leicester or Nottingham.
“Playing in the Championship has been very good for me as I hadn’t played much senior rugby until last season being in the Tigers academy.
“It was definitely a step up in physicality and intensity but I’ve adapted well I think and I really enjoy playing every weekend.
“We’re playing our first home game at Lady Bay and I’m sure it’ll be a great occasion.
“We’ve had two good wins over the last two weeks against London Scottish and Rotherham which makes us go into this game against Plymouth with some kind of momentum. We really want to make the play-offs but we know it’ll start by us playing well as a team.”
Pohe was born in Napier in New Zealand where he grew up playing Rugby League but the switch to Union was forced upon him when he and his family moved to Cornwall in 2007.
Playing for the Penzance Pirates and Redruth, the Tigers spotted the youngster playing for South West U15s in 2009 and were quick to offer him a place in their academy.
Being half-Maori half-English, Pohe represented England U18s at the European Championship in Madrid in 2012 and scored a try in the final win against Ireland.
He said: “I only played League until I moved to England. League is very popular back home in some regions, maybe even more popular than Union, and my dad played League so I followed in his footsteps.
“But there wasn’t any clubs around in Cornwall so I had to switch to Union. Two years later, I joined the Leicester academy which was all pretty random to be honest. I’m not too sure how they found me.
“I didn’t know what Premiership rugby was until I moved to Leicester to be honest and the only players I had heard about were Manu and Alesana Tuilagi, who were famous in New Zealand, Toby Flood and the Youngs brothers.
“I’m out of contract at the end of the season and I’m currently negotiating a new deal with the Tigers. I’ve made four appearances for their first team over the past two seasons so, hopefully, I can add a few more this season or the next.
“That’s where being at Nottingham is great because it allows me to play and shows the Leicester staff what I can do rather than just train and never play.
“I can then go back to Leicester and analyse the tapes with the coaches and pin-point what I need to work on. They’ve been pleased with me so far this season so let’s hope I can continue in that way.”