{"id":370848,"date":"2026-01-15T06:43:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370848\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:43:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:43:16","slug":"toulon-confirm-junior-kpoku-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370848\/","title":{"rendered":"Toulon confirm Junior Kpoku signing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/toulon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toulon<\/a> have confirmed the signing of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> U20 forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/junior-kpoku\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Junior Kpoku<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/racing-92\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Racing 92<\/a> on a loan deal until the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The move was confirmed following reports in French outlet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbyrama.fr\/2026\/01\/13\/exclu-midol-transferts-top-14-junior-kpoku-racing-92-arrive-a-toulon-13159287.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Midi Olymique<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old has been the centre of plenty of transfer speculation over the past month, with a potential return to England on the cards.<\/p>\n<p>He remains contracted with Racing until 2027, but has fallen out of favour with head coach Patrice Collazo in the French capital this season.<\/p>\n<p>The loan deal means that the option is still on the table for Gallagher PREM clubs to buy the versatile forward out of his contract at the end of the season, an idea that Sale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/sharks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sharks<\/a> director of rugby Alex Sanderson has mooted in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Fixture<\/p>\n<p>Investec Champions Cup<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768459395_210_104.png.webp.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> Gloucester <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/213.png.webp.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> Toulon <\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/gloucester-vs-toulon\/?g=948468\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p>A return to England would make Kpoku eligible to be selected by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/steve-borthwick\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Borthwick<\/a> for the national team, where he could make a tilt for selection for the World Cup at the end of next year.<\/p>\n<p>The 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/world-rugby-u20-championship\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Rugby U20 Championship<\/a> winner\u2019s return to England may come sooner than anticipated, with Toulon travelling to Kingsholm this Saturday to take on Gloucester, with a place in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/european-champions-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Investec Champions Cup<\/a> play-offs on the line.<\/p>\n<p>Toulon sporting director Laurent Emmanuelli said: \u201cThe arrival of Junior Kpoku addresses an immediate need for reinforcement in our pack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is a young player with enormous potential, a powerful and athletic profile, capable of playing in both the second and back rows. This loan will allow him to continue his development while providing us with a valuable solution for the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Racing released a brief statement confirming his departure: \u201cRacing 92 announce the loan departure of their second-row, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/junior-kpoku\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Junior Kpoku<\/a>, to RC Toulon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe young Racing player (20 years old) joins the Var club on loan until the end of the 2025-2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRacing 92 wishes him great success in his new colours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toulon have confirmed the signing of England U20 forward Junior Kpoku from Racing 92 on a loan deal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-370848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}