England’s new prop idol
Fin Baxter reflects on an incredible first season with England, thrown into the deep end on his debut against the All Blacks in New Zealand, and how Alex Corbisiero inspired him, with Will Kelleher, the Deputy Rugby Correspondent of The Times.
Fin Baxter needed some time to think about the best year of his sporting life this summer, so after playing his first two England Tests against New Zealand, he hired a camper van and toured solo around the country’s north island.
The 22-year-old loose-head prop pottered around Waitangi, where New Zealand’s constitutional treaty was signed in 1840, and the Coromandel Peninsula. He went around Marae churches, to the Hot Water Beach and Waitomo glow-worm caves, to Matamata, now better known as Hobbiton after the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films were shot on sets there, and tried some trekking too.
However, those walks did not go to plan.
“One was up near Waitangi – the Cape Brett lighthouse,” Baxter says. “It’s pretty far north in New Zealand. I completely under-estimated the walk; what I thought would be three and a half hours all in was four and a half one way!
“Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings is based off Mount Ngauruhoe on the Tongariro Crossing. I planned to do that, but I was so tired after the first one I couldn’t do it!
“When I went to Tongariro I thought ‘I’m pretty sure I should be able to see this mountain – it’s huge’. It was rainy, foggy, I couldn’t see more than 15 metres in front of me, so there you go.”
Baxter’s father, Ian, had left him the van, having driven it from Dunedin to Auckland – nearly 900 miles – so he could watch his son play the All Blacks. As Baxter drove it around, on his mini gap-year week, he had much to reflect on.
“I’ve had to make myself think about what happened last season, so I don’t just brush over it,” Baxter says. “I’m really proud of myself, and how the season went.”
On July 6 at the Forsyth Barr stadium Baxter made his England debut, appearing from the substitutes’ bench just 17 minutes into the game. He replaced his Harlequins team-mate and mentor Joe Marler, who had broken his foot when under pressure in a scrum.
Suddenly, the moment Baxter had wished his whole life for, was there in a flash.
“Getting thrown in after 17 minutes because of an injury, there was no real time to go ‘holy crap, I’m going on!’. I had to just go for it, and had no time to think about it,” he explains. “I was happy it went like that.”
While England lost the Test 16-15 to New Zealand, Baxter held his own in the scrum against tighthead Tyrel Lomax, and then started the next week at Eden Park.
“New Zealand are one of the top two scrums in the world, so to be thrown up against that and for it not to be a horror show was cool,” Baxter says. “I’m not resting on ‘cool’, I’m striving to make sure England become the top scrum in the world, and that becomes normal.”
Facing New Zealand’s Haka was another pinch yourself moment for Baxter. “The Haka was really cool,” he explains. “Some people say it’s an unfair advantage, but as a rugby fan I was just buzzing, and getting hyped about it. I’d watched it so many times on telly, and then got to experience it, so it revved me up if anything.”
Baxter had proven his scrummaging prowess in the Gallagher Premiership season, and in the Investec Champions Cup, standing up to and dominating bigger men, with solid foundations and a good technique. He bested the 24-stone tighthead Ben Tameifuna from Bordeaux-Begles in the Champions Cup quarter-final which Harlequins won 42-41.
Baxter has built strong foundations with Marler’s help, and alongside scrum coach Adam Jones, the former Welsh tighthead, who rates him incredibly highly.
“The main attribute you need as a prop is to be competitive, stay in and dig in sometimes,” Jones has said of Baxter. “He’s got that. He’s an amazing ball-player, and a phenomenal defender, and is able to dead-stop people, which Steve Borthwick will love.
“You need to be competitive, and at times bite down on your gum-shield and dig in. He’s got that fight. He’s still a big kid, but he’s got no neck, a big old head on him, and he’s strong through the hips. I know he looks young, and the old-fashioned prop has the grizzled face and he isn’t that, but you don’t need to be that these days.”
Now back in the England squad for this Autumn Nations Series, Baxter is attempting to build on the fine start to his career. He remembers trying to track these internationals in November as a child.
“When I was growing up, I’d usually be at a minis festival when the November games were on, as you had to keep up with the score between your matches,” he remembers.
Having only played against New Zealand so far in his career, Baxter cannot wait for Tests against other nations. Playing Australia, in particular, would be a special one for him as he remembers obsessively watching the 2013 British & Irish Lions series against them as an 11-year-old.
“The 2013 tour to Australia was when I was obsessed with rugby growing up. It was an important moment in me wanting to play rugby,” Baxter says. “Alex Corbisiero scored in the 3rd Test, and he was from my rugby club, Cobham, so when he did that and Dad pointed him out, I thought ‘wow, it’s doable’.”
Now it is Baxter’s chance to make a name for himself. He is part of a fresh crop of exciting youngsters in the front row. Behind him in the pecking order are those who won the World Rugby Under20s Championship title in the summer, Asher Opoku-Fordjour from Sale Sharks, Afolabi Fasogbon at Gloucester and Vilikesa 'Billy' Sela at Bath.
Baxter believes that together they can make England top of the props again.
“There are so many lads with lots of potential and very high ceilings,” he says. “There’s a real want and desire across the board to love scrummaging.”
