Tomas Francis worth his weight to Wales in Rugby World Cup build-up

When Wales were preparing for the last World Cup, Tomas Francis was studying for a degree in mechanical engineering at Leeds University and playing in the front row for the second team, where his weight of more than 24st meant their scrum rarely went backwards.

A career in professional rugby, never mind at Test level, was not even a distant dream for the student who enjoyed the social side of the amateur game. After a season in the Premiership with Exeter, however, the slimmed-down 23-year-old – Yorkshire-born but Wales qualified through a grandmother who was born in Abercrave – is one performance away from being named in Wales’s World Cup squad on Monday.

Francis makes his debut for Wales against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday having shed four stone since his university days. With Samson Lee recovering from an achilles tendon operation at the end of last season’s Six Nations and Adam Jones dropped from the squad last November, the tight-head has an opportunity he did not envisage a year ago.

“The World Cup never crossed my mind,” says Francis, who made his Exeter debut against London Welsh last September after stints with Doncaster and London Scottish. “I still have to pinch myself that I am here and it feels surreal, but I have been given an opportunity and I have to take it. I know it will be a big step up, just like the Premiership was from the Championship, and I am trying not to put pressure on myself, taking things one day at a time.”

Francis, who started playing with Malton and Norton rugby club when he was four, was nearly lost to the game. “When I was at school [Sedbergh and then Ampleforth College] I wanted to play rugby but when I reached the sixth form I had not been picked up and did not fit into the English system,” he said. “There was some bitterness over that, so I studied A-levels in maths, physics and chemistry to go into mechanical engineering. Andrew Boyd, my university coach, was playing at Doncaster and asked me at Christmas, a time of food and drink, to go there and keep fit. They ended up signing me.”

When Francis joined Wales for the summer training camps in Switzerland and Qatar, he weighed more than 21st but is now down to 20.4st. “I enjoy pushing my body to see where I can go,” he says. “I started to change my lifestyle towards the end at London Scottish and made the next step at Exeter. When I was playing at university, I was 24.4st but I feel in the best shape of my life; stronger and fitter.

“Everyone in the Wales camp has been welcoming from the first day and that made me enjoy it and thrive. I committed to Wales a long time ago. England spoke to me in the autumn but I decided I wasn’t ready for either, wanting to play more rugby. As soon as I came to train with the Wales squad for the Six Nations, I had made my decision; I feel I fit in better here.”

Francis quickly established a reputation at Exeter for strong scrummaging, with England’s Alex Corbisiero among the loose-heads he got on top of. He made 26 appearances for the Chiefs and quickly attracted the attention of the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland.

“He has done incredibly well and is still developing as a player,” says Gatland. “He has a chance to prove himself in Dublin surrounded by a pretty experienced pack and back division. We are really impressed with the way he has developed and he is continuing to improve conditioning-wise. Saturday is about him enjoying the opportunity and doing the basics well. If he does that, we will be more than happy.”

Francis is the one tyro in the Wales starting lineup. Ten of the players were involved in the last World Cup – it would have been 11 but for the shoulder injury that ruled out the captain, Sam Warburton – and while the wing Alex Cuthbert, a Lion in 2013 who lost his place in the 2015 Six Nations to Liam Williams, has something to prove, the rest will be in Monday’s 31.

The back-rower James King and the full-back Hallam Amos, a rival to Cuthbert on the wing, where Williams is a doubt because of injury, are the two replacements Gatland will be most interested in as he ponders the final places in the squad. He has long debated whether to name 17 or 18 forwards but Lee’s quick recovery is tilting him towards 17, allowing him an extra back.

“We have 25 or 26 players who are nailed on,” says Gatland. “The players who do miss out will be incredibly unlucky but they have to keep themselves fit because if we have some knocks we will have to call people in. The game in Dublin is about building confidence: we were poor in the first half against Ireland earlier this month and, playing away from home, we are looking to replicate what is going to happen in our two big World Cup games at Twickenham [against England and Australia]. The impact a few players make against Ireland will be important in terms of selection.”

While Wales have considerably more experience than England, they look more vulnerable to injury, which is why the emergence of Francis is so important to them. If he gets through an encounter with the Six Nations champions, facing his native England at Twickenham on 26 September will become a reality.