The other Kpoku brother

Jonathan Kpoku isn’t sure what the future holds. The 26-year-old second-row is out of contract with France’s Nationale 1 table-toppers Albi at the end of the season, which will — depending on how things go in a play-off semi-final at home against barrage qualifiers Narbonne on Saturday evening — be in one, two, or even three matches’ time.

This is the nature of rugby contracts, and the former Saracen can only be philosophical about it. “Rugby is a revolving door,” he said. “I’m waiting to see what’s going to come up — hopefully, I’ll be able to stay in the south, in Occitanie. But if I have to move further afield, then so be it.”

The transfer market in France is saturated this season following mid-season bankruptcies at Nationale sides Niort and Tarbes, he said, as well as a projected planned tightening of the ‘Jiff’ player eligibility rules.

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“I’m waiting to hear back from a few people,” Kpoku said of the next phase of his career. “France is always late in terms of signings for foreigners, so I’m not too concerned.”

After 14 outings this season, in which he has scored four times, Kpoku was forced to the sidelines by a knee injury in February. But he is back in full training and hopes to be in the 23 for the weekend’s semi-final at the town’s Stadium Municipal.

To date, he has 35 appearances in two seasons at Albi, having signed from Bourgoin in 2024.  “I wasn’t expecting to leave,” he said of his move away from the historic club in south-east France after 25 matches in two campaigns. “I thought I was going to stay there for a little while.

“The club just wanted to go in a different direction — I can’t complain, it’s just how it goes in rugby, and you have to move on. 

“Albi came about the middle, end of May [that season]. They had just lost against Suresnes in the semi-final at home and that week I got a call saying, ‘We want to sign you’. 

“Within a week or two, the contract was signed.”

He joined an Albi side used to reaching the post-season play-offs, but one that consistently missed out on returning to France’s second-tier ProD2. In his first season, they finished fourth. Last season, they claimed the sixth and final play-off spot. Each time they lost in the play-off barrage round. 

This season, however, they claimed top spot in the league, four points clear of galactico squad Nissa, who they have beaten twice this season, and have a bye straight to a home semi-final next weekend. 

Kpoku isn’t surprised at Albi’s charge to the top. “I knew what this group was capable of doing,” he said. “We saw it towards the end of the back end of last season.”

Albi won seven of their last eight in the regular season after parting ways with manager Mathieu Bonello. “The one game we lost was because we basically thought we made it, we’d cracked the code and our [lack of] humility cost us the game,” Kpoku said.

“We have a great group,” he went on. “We’re young, we’re open to learning. We’ve just built on what we had towards last season. 

“There’s not been a shift in mentality. There’s not been a shift in what we’re doing. It’s just a continuation of what we managed to do last season. The signings that the coaches and the club have made this year has given us a little added bonus.”

Last summer, Albi signed an agreement with Top 14 neighbours Castres, and have benefited from a supply of loaned academy prospects, including Georgian prop Mate Gurtskaia, second row Alexey Konnov, and fly-half Louison Gras — who recently signed a longer-term deal to remain at the ambitious Nationale side.

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“I’ve been where those boys are now,” Kpoku said, recalling his period at Ampthill, when he was on Saracens’ books.  “They’re just, ‘I love it here’. 

“I felt the same when I was playing at Ampthill week in, week out — it’s fun. You start enjoying rugby, you start enjoying playing village rugby instead of playing Top 14, or ProD2 where it’s serious all the time. It’s just brilliant.”

Albi — with the best defence and fourth-best attack in the Nationale — are playing older and more experienced rugby than their age profile suggests. Kpoku sees ambition in that. 

“We still have that fear of not being able to do well, because we’re all still young so we all want to springboard on to bigger things and do better next season. 

“Not trying to disrespect anybody, but when you’re 33, 34 years old, you’ve done it all. You’re probably wanting to come to this league and just take a chill pill, whereas when you’re between the ages of 23 to 26-27, you’ve still got a long time ahead of you. So you’re going to want to do as well as you can. You’re going to want to throw your body out there and show bigger teams what you can do.”

There’s no secret to their success this season, he insisted. “Week in, week out, we've been able to show what we can do as a group.

“We had a lot of people doubting us. There have been moments where we've doubted ourselves, like when we lost against Massy, or, when we won against Narbonne, we started to realise we’re actually a better team than what a lot of people in the media are saying, and we need to start taking ourselves seriously.”

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And, despite the ‘fun’ of playing third-tier rugby in a small World Heritage town in south-west France, Kpoku wants Albi’s next-season future to be ProD2-level serious. 

“With all the efforts that we've made this season, all the sacrifices some of the boys have made with kids and with partners to get to the semi-final and fall short or get to the final and fall short — that would be a tough pill to swallow. 

“We’re in it to go all the way. And if we don’t get all the way, it’s a failure, for me anyways. I know I’m going to see it as we failed this season and we’ve not been able to achieve the goals that we set ourselves.”

Kpoku’s career has been relatively discreet compared to brothers Joel — now at Nationale rivals Nissa following spells with Top 14 outfits Lyon and Pau — and Junior, who started four Toulon in their Champions Cup semi-final loss to Leinster in Dublin last weekend, having moved on loan from Racing 92.

He left Saracens to join Coventry, then crossed the Channel to sign for Bourgoin in 2022, not long after twin brother Joel joined nearby Lyon. 

“I just needed a bit of a change,” Kpoku admitted. “I wasn’t feeling great rugby-wise, didn’t feel I was where I wanted to be. When Bourgoin came about, I was in a pretty rough place. So I just said, ‘I might as well go see what it’s like — if I don’t enjoy it, I could always come back’.

“Originally I said no, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But then I thought about it literally for one night and I sent [his agent] a message the next day.

“Everything from the moment that I said yes, all happened in the space of four or five days. And it was fantastic. I think it was one of the best decisions I made.”

Kpoku is close to his brothers. He visited Joel regularly when the two lived just half-an-hour apart in south-east France, and headed to the Riviera coast to see both of them a few weeks before we spoke. 

“We’re experiencing different things at different moments. Junior going from Paris to Toulon, where rugby is basically a religion. I told him, “Bro, if you’re not playing well and you guys are losing all the time, expect people to walk up to you in supermarkets and give you a piece of their mind.”

After his Paris experience, Junior didn’t believe his big brother. But then, “They lost against Stade Francais at home. Two days later he went to a supermarket — and he told me ‘I should have listened to you’.”

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Albi  may be two levels down the pyramid, but rugby is as much of a religion there as Toulon. “If you’re doing something, they won’t approach you,” Kpoku said. “But if you’re not they will come up and ask, ‘What happened? How come you guys lost — you were terrible!’.

“We’ve not really had it this season. This season everyone’s like, ‘Well done’.

“I love it! It brings you back down to earth because you remember why you’re doing it, especially when you’ve got little kids running up to you and saying ‘hello’. 

“It puts a smile on your face. It makes your day sometimes.”

In terms of his career, things may be uncertain for the moment, but Kpoku has a French passport in mind. “I’m one year away from being able to apply [for citizenship],” he said. “At the end of next season, I'll be able to apply for it. 

“It just makes sense to do it — it will open many doors for me in terms of wanting to live in Europe.”