by England’s latest Welsh-born winger, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, has revealed he never thought about the path he could have taken had he been accepted to Cardiff University to study medicine.
Feyi-Waboso was not offered a place at Cardiff despite achieving three A* grades at A level. Instead he went to university in England before finishing at Exeter, where he is continuing his medical studies as he impressed the Chiefs, which led to Steve Borthwick’s call-up and England’s debut against Italy.
Asked whether things might have gone differently had he studied in Wales, Feyi-Waboso replied: “Not really, no. Once I didn’t come in, I didn’t think about it again.”
Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, recalled in his Telegraph Sport column last month the moment assistant coach Neil Jenkins learned that Feyi-Waboso had chosen to play for England over Wales. “I can’t use the language he used but basically it was like: ‘He was born in Cardiff and if he doesn’t want to play for Wales, he can b—-r off’,” wrote Gatland.
Feyi-Waboso could become a third generation doctor after graduating. His Nigerian grandfather, Marcus, is a gynecologist and his English grandmother, Margaret, lives in Gloucester. Feyi-Waboso’s father, Andrew, is an ophthalmologist, and the family moved around a lot as a result of his father’s job, resulting in Feyi-Waboso being born in Cardiff.
“When I came to Exeter my dad was like ‘Yeah, I live here too’,” explained Feyi-Waboso. “He’s been around a lot to be fair, he spent some time in Scotland. We lived in Cardiff for quite some time. I was there until I was 15 and went to school in Bristol.”
Feyi-Waboso has been in the spotlight this past week given his links to Wales and the 21-year-old admitted he has been deleting Instagram during the week since joining the international fold, listening with the advice of others in the squad to prevent an outsider. noise That attention was obviously heightened when Feyi-Waboso’s decision to play for England instead of Wales came after Borthwick called him up, which the 21-year-old admits came sooner than expected. expected
“I thought [the decision] to be much further in the future,” he said. “There was a bit of noise, to be fair. You probably wrote it. I blocked a lot of it so it wasn’t too bad. I have a lot of good people around me, like a family. They helped my decision and certainly didn’t force my hand. It was my decision without a doubt. Whatever decision I made, they were happy.”
Regarding the move to Exeter, he revealed that Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby, helped secure his place to study medicine at university while Feyi-Waboso opted for his first year again.
“Rob was really good about it, he told them it was huge..[Medicine] It’s not something I want to stop. It was all for him, and he made it happen, pretty much. I found myself in. So I said, I want to start from year one again, because I’ll be playing a lot, getting used to full-time rugby and full-time medicine. I’d rather start all over again, and go again.”
Juggling the workloads of being a professional rugby player and a medical student is quite a task, with Feyi-Waboso studying in the mornings and late evenings at university on either side of training. With a test coming up just days after England face France, he plans to do some test prep while in camp with England team doctor Katy Hornby.
“I enjoyed learning,” Feyi-Waboso said. “If I wasn’t playing rugby, my ideal situation would be to stay at University, keep learning, keep going. But of course, I think being a doctor is a profession of constant learning.
“You never really stop. You do five years at University, then you have two foundation years, then specialisation… it’s not boring. Neither is rugby. It is very interesting. He is constantly learning, seeing new players, new systems and things like that. So it’s pretty cool.
“My driving force, I think it’s a normal thing now. It’s just something I want to do: be a doctor.”
Back on the rugby pitch, it’s less than a year since Feyi-Waboso starred in National One for Taunton, facing the likes of Chinnor and Moseley and helping the club avoid relegation. Now it is an international wing.
“It was a step forward, for sure. With the new boys around, all the players have been very welcoming – it’s really shocking because I thought there would be more of a hierarchy, but they’re all so friendly. It is very good. I enjoyed the trip, for sure. It feels a bit rushed, but I’ve enjoyed being here.”
