In the last year, I have been asked about one Munster player more than any other, bar one month.
That month was March, and the rumours around a potential move to Leicester meant that Jack Crowley became my most asked-about player on Instagram story replies, Patreon private messages, and the TRK Secret Club.
For the other eleven months of the year, the #1 spot was taken by Edwin Edogbo.
How’s Edwin doing?
Any news on when he’ll be back?
What’s the story with Edogbo’s injury?
Will he be back this season?
I can assure you that this would not be normal for a player with zero Irish U20 caps and 14 Munster caps total in between two long-term Achilles tendon injuries, but Edwin Edogbo is different. Anyone who saw him play for Munster in any of those 14 appearances across the last two seasons left having experienced an Edwin Edogbo Moment, where he either stunned you with his holy shit tier physicality or with the staggering maturity and intelligence he plays with for a guy with so little top-level rugby experience coming up through the age grades.
It absolutely isn’t a prerequisite for a good career to have an eye-catching U20 career, but it certainly helps. Joe McCarthy, for example, was far from the star of the show in his year but went on to be a big player for Leinster and Ireland all the same. Dan Sheehan was fifth in his U20s year depth chart at hooker. Even then, both of those players and, indeed, almost every player playing professionally on the island went through some school’s rugby hothousing.
That hothousing gives you exposure to a certain level of elite rugby on-field, but off-field too. The training is more pressurised, the fitness and conditioning required are more demanding, and the understanding that you need to do well in almost every facet of the game is exacting.
When you don’t have that exposure coming up, you’ve got to be special to make it as a professional rugby player, and that word describes Edwin Edogbo down to the ground. Special.
Edogbo immediately caught the eye when he was brought into the Munster academy in 2021. A big, 120 kg+ explosive second row? We haven’t had too many of those come through the academy in the last fifteen years, let alone five years. When I asked about him, I was told that he was raw in a lot of ways, but was probably the most capable guy they’d seen when it came to overcoming that rawness.
When it comes down to it, almost all of the pitfalls that catch out players who make a provincial academy without a whole ton of higher-level games at underage are intellectual in nature, rather than physical. Knowing where to be and when to be there, what to do and how you do it is more relevant to success than how much you can bench when it comes down to it. In this regard, Edogbo has been a frighteningly quick learner.
One of the things that sticks out with guys, especially forwards, who are “raw” when they play AIL, A games or even full senior games, is how often they’re either ahead of where they’re supposed to be or slightly behind. That has never applied to Edwin Edogbo in any game I’ve seen him. He knows exactly where he’s supposed to be and how to impact when he gets there. That’s true in an A game, it’s true in senior games against some of the biggest players in the sport.
This is rare. Very rare.
So, when a player who displays this rare game IQ, along with an equally rare combination of size and explosive power, suffers a year-long injury, it’s only natural that there will be a clamour to see him return.
Last week against Connacht Eagles, Edogbo finally made that comeback approximately 18 months after suffering a second Achillies injury against Leinster in Thomond Park. I had to go and see that return to play. How could I not? I was asked about Edogbo every week since the start of the season, so I had to see what he looked like back in action.
I wasn’t alone, either.
From a role perspective, I would class Edwin Edogbo as a Tighthead Lock Power Forward. What does this mean in practicality?
Well, it means that Edogbo will primarily attack and defend in the close and middle spaces of the field where his low-gear power is most effective on both sides of the ball. At the set piece, he’ll primarily be a lifter and maul driver, but is more than capable of taking 2/3 lineouts per game and counter-jumping, although we’ll see how that translates as he builds into his frame. Speaking of his frame, Edogbo looks around 6’5″/6’6″ and seems to be playing well over 120kg.
He was playing at that weight pre-injury, and looks significantly bigger and wider now.
Energy management is crucial for players with this kind of heavyweight power profile. They cannot and should not do everything. A good example is Will Skelton, who plays for either an hour or twenty minutes, depending on La Rochelle’s needs. So far this season, Skelton has averaged nine carries, nine ruck entries and nine tackles per match this season with very little lineout jumping or too much ruck work, and I think that’s a good target for Edogbo to reach. Not necessarily hitting nine tackles and carries as a blunt number, but tapering his game to be primarily about lineout lifting, maul work on both sides of the ball, scrummaging and using his power in tight exchanges for either an hour, or for twenty minutes off the bench. You’ll often see Skelton either carrying 9/10 times and being a secondary jumper, or being a primary tackler and carrier with no jumping in the lineout, but rarely will he be schemed to do everything. Of course, anything can happen in a game, but in a general sense, Skelton understands what can and cannot do.
Why am I mentioning Skelton and Edogbo in the same sentence?
Let’s have a look at Edogbo’s stat line for 2023/24, keeping in mind that he was injured halfway through the season and compare it to Will Skelton’s 24/25. For a start, they have approximately the same carries/tackles per game minute. With that in mind, let’s look at the numbers;
Will Skelton 24/25
Dominant carry percentage: 43.4%
Gainline: 56.5%
Committing 2+ tacklers: 78.3%
Tackle Evasion: 18.3%
Ruck Involvement and Effectiveness: 196 rucks at 77.6%
Edwin Edogbo 23/24
Dominant carry percentage: 51.4%
Gainline: 58.3%
Committing 2+ tacklers: 66.7%
Tackle Evasion: 22.9%
Ruck Involvement and Effectiveness: 97 rucks at 82.5%
I’m not saying that Edwin Edogbo will be a player of Will Skelton’s level or success, but I’m saying that from a profile perspective, they play in broadly the same spaces, are used in broadly the same manner and Edogbo’s numbers from last season stack up with Skelton on a like-for-like basis.
Skelton was playing in mostly bigger games against better opposition, yes, but he was also playing in bigger, more impactful pack builds.
Edogbo’s numbers
My real point is this: when big men understand how to conserve energy for the important stuff, they are incrementally more effective.
In that A-game, Edogbo’s first on-field involvement off the bench was absolutely vaporising this maul. Sure, he slides in behind O’Connell pretty early, but Connacht have nothing at all for him when he starts to pull this maul through.
He followed that up with incredible power on the touchline side of this maul as a “driver” where, once again, nobody can stop him moving forward with that massive leg drive. What does this mean in practice? There was no resistance to his forward movement that could force him to stagger his stride.
His maul work has always been really tight, and that shows the coachability he’s known for; he gets what he’s shown very quickly, and you can see the influence guys like Kleyn, Beirne and even Snyman have had on certain parts of his maul work on both sides of the shove.
Edogbo has an incredible wingspan for a heavyweight lock and it gives him very strong leverage in all kinds of contact scenarios as well as making him a good lineout target and a great lifter.
In short, I think Edwin Edogbo has the potential to play for Ireland this year if he can stay fit and firing on the field. I think if he hadn’t been injured in that game against Leinster in December 2023, where he went toe to toe with Joe McCarthy, I think he’d already have 2/3 caps under his belt at the very least. You can never be sure of that when it comes to Farrell’s selection patterns, of course, but I think Edogbo has the kind of power profile that had Farrell spending 18 months investing in Joe McCarthy, when his performances were often far from warranting such investment.
Edwin Edogbo has the kind of power and presence to anchor Munster’s tight work on both sides of the ball for the next decade, if he can stay fit. That will be the worry for Edogbo going forward, of course, but two Achillies injuries in four seasons doesn’t have to suggest a long term vulnerability there, no more so than any other injury, as long as it’s properly managed.
If he stays fit, Edogbo can be a huge player for Munster and Ireland over the next decade. What we’ve seen from him so far in between injuries shows that very clearly. All he needs is a little luck and the dedication that he’s shown at every step of his young career so far.
