Harrogate RUFC product and Sale Sharks prop Oliver Spencer hoping to open a few eyes with England Under-20s
Oliver Spencer didn’t like rugby when he first picked up the oval ball. It was “too cold” the five-year-old told his Dad who had taken him to a club near their family home in Worksop.
By the time he was 10, his family had relocated to north Leeds, and his Dad tried him again at Harrogate RUFC.
“It was when contact rugby started. I was hopeless at football and other sports, but I was built for rugby so I started back up,” remembers Spencer.
“I wasn’t great but I stuck at it.”
He was a No 8 at first but over time at Harrogate and then the Yorkshire RFU Academy, he morphed into a prop.
“I’ve always been big growing up, bigger than all my mates,” remembers Spencer, whose progress has taken him to international honours. “I started getting decent when I realised I was twice the size of everyone else.
“It definitely helped my confidence, rugby allowed me to come out of my shell.”
The persistence of father and son is paying off, because - now aged 19 - Oliver is part of the England Under-20s squad competing in the Junior World Championships in Georgia.
They won their first game, gaining revenge over Ireland for a bitter defeat in the Six Nations earlier this year, and face the United States in Tbilisi on Thursday afternoon.
Spencer is in his first year with the Under-20s having graduated from Harrogate to the Yorkshire Academy and now to Sale Sharks.
“Once you’re in you want to be pushing for more,” he said of his experiences so far with the England Under-20s, for whom he has won six caps. “It’s a great opportunity to have two years with the set-up, another world championships next year to get that second bite of the cherry.”
A bite has already come in this tournament, one in which England need to keep winning to top the pool and progress to the semi-finals. He was a second-half replacement in the 34-27 win over Ireland.
“It was really good to beat them, especially with the build-up we had following the Six Nations game, it was personal for a lot of the boys,” said Spencer.
“Going into USA we’re trying to keep the momentum going, the next game is the biggest game is the mentality we’re going with. There’s a good feeling in the camp.”
Chomping at the bit to get back out there, Spencer will have to wait having been left out of the 23 to face the USA. Argentina are up next on Tuesday in what is shaping up to be the Pool C decider to determine who advances to the semi-final.
Spencer’s short career has been highlighted by seizing chances.
Having shown promise at Harrogate, he spent three years crafting his front-row game in the Yorkshire Academy, a set-up that is the equal to those of Prem clubs but which lacks the pathway to a top-flight club.
“That is a frustration,” admits Spencer. “At the time you have to be a bit selfish when you’re looking for a senior contract and you have to show yourself off, so I was just thinking I want an offer from somewhere.
“I played with some really talented players in Yorkshire who never really got a sniff and there’s always that fear that if they were in that pipeline of a senior club and people watching them week in, week out, would they have had a different opportunity? So I think it is harder.
“So you have to be selfish and display yourself as best you can, because there’s not as many eyes on you.”
At the junior world championships and next year with Sale, Spencer is hoping to open a few more eyes to his potential.