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Thu 19 Mar 2015 | 11:30
Highlights video of U15 flyer Tyrese Johnson-Fisher hits 1 Million viral views

24
Comments

Johnson-Fisher took the rugby world by storm when footage emerged of him playing for Oakham U-15's in the NatWest Schools Cup semi-final, a semi-final that they would win mostly thanks to the outstanding performance of this young man. 

The victory sees Oakham reach the final for the first time in 10 years, and the subsequent highlights video of Johnson-Fisher's exploits have resulted in a whopping 1.4 million views (at time of writing), with it being featured and shared not only in rugby circles, but also American Football.

The 15 year-old scored four tries in the game, pretty much single-handedly winning it for his team.

His highlights reel shows the impressive combination of pace, power and agility as the young outside-centre was pretty much untouchable throughout the game, effortlessly floating between the flailing Bishop Wordworth's tackles.

His pace and agility should come as no surprise however as Johnson-Fisher is also a decorated sprinter, winning the English Schools Championship junior boys 100 metre title with an impressive time of 10.91 seconds.

This highlights reel has shown that this young man has a bright future ahead of him and if he keeps developing as he is, he will be terrorizing defences wherever he goes.

Johnson-Fischer can seek inspiration from Lewis Moody, another former Oakham pupil, who famously went on to win a Rugby World Cup. The school is probably the only thing they have in common however, with the 15-year-old's running style more akin to someone like Rupeni Caucau.

As if the tries aren't enjoyable enough, that big bump at 37 seconds is epic.

credit: England Rugby

Posted By: Grant Constable

24 Comments

  • larry
    7:23 PM 22/03/2015

    Weights were one way of dividing teams in high school sports back in the first half of the 20th century in America. It went away as a practice, and therefore freshman, frosh-soph, junior varsity, and varsity levels predominated and still do today. With cuts to education in so many American states some programs have done away with freshman or frosh-soph teams. That's what happens in a nation when tax cuts for the richest and feeding the military industrial complex is more important than anything else.

  • larry
    7:20 PM 22/03/2015

    That was an artificial surface. I hate them. They should be banned. And what's with the short in-goals? It's not as though there wasn't space behind the dead ball line that they could have been a few yards deeper. I never played on artificial turf, but did referee a match once on that surface. The next day my legs felt like I had run a marathon.

  • larry
    7:14 PM 22/03/2015

    I was the referee yesterday at a women's club-side match in San Jose, California. There aren't that many African-American rugby players of either sex in California, or the USA, overall, compared to white players and Pacific Islanders. Both teams who played yesterday had a few African-American players out on the pitch. The San Francisco Golden Gate side's scrum half is one of them, and she easily was the 'woman of the match.' I wouldn't have said she was the fastest player, either, but she had good speed. So did some white players of the backs on either side. It's just great to see so many more players, especially in the university sides, who aren't white playing the game now. There's a number of Mexican-American players at the college level now, and just a decade or more ago it was rare to see them represented. They make up a huge part of California's population, so their numbers on rugby teams should grow.

    Here in the USA a knock on rugby for past decades was this perception that it was a sport played by mostly white men (and women) who weren't good enough to play any other sports. The fact that some very good more well-known players had college American football experience didn't mean much to the general public. There were even a few former NFL football players on clubs here in California back in the 70's and 80's. It was a game considered by many to be played by college students who got cut from baseball, basketball or American football teams, or even soccer teams, or older club-side players who were not serious athletes but wanted an excuse to have a party after a match.

    Now that perception is changing, and when schools like Cal and Brigham Young or St. Mary's get national exposure, and the 7's competition as well, like in Las Vegas, it's all for the good of the game.

  • larry
    6:54 PM 22/03/2015

    That's the thing about rugby; you get as well as you give.

  • robkeating
    2:43 AM 22/03/2015

    I agree, even at the top level sometimes players get it wrong and get smashed as that poor kid did.

  • robkeating
    2:40 AM 22/03/2015

    A good lesson about why you don't go high when tackling someone big and fast. As my coach used to say, "Just watch the shorts and go low."

  • jmehrtens
    1:32 AM 22/03/2015

    Too little to judge, what i see is that he is faster and stroner than his opponents and runs to the sidelines.
    I would like my 13 to run straighter and create space.

  • drg
    7:37 PM 21/03/2015

    Thank you Stroudos, worded better than I could ever have done.

    My statement was based purely on my experiences in youth rugby. I remember a game involving rolling subs where a chap who did not have white skin was; I'd imagine, double the weight of our number 8 who was our biggest player, much faster than any player we had and stronger than any of us. When he was off we were the strongest team, they brought him on to level the score, took him off, we dominated, brought him on, he smoked us etc...

    Then there was another game, where whenever this other chap who was not as small and weak and white as us, got the ball we had to commit 3 tacklers EVERY TIME!.. So whether I'm now a raving racist that's soon to be sent my kkk membership card and white robe, I still base my comment on what I've experienced and what I see in this video.

    I can always try and give you information about how many white and black players I've played against and I'll let you decide whether the percentages speak about colour...

  • stroudos
    8:06 AM 20/03/2015

    *WARNING* PC ALERT - PC ALERT *WARNING*

    Go down to any athletics track Mr Content, and let me know how many white people you see winning races. DrG's not stereotyping, just acknowledging a reasonably observed trend. Black guys tend to be faster sprinters and show more powerful acceleration, partly due to a higher density of fast-twitch muscle fibres.

    They also *tend* to mature physically at an earlier age, which is why you see mis-matches in size like the example here. In New Zealand they play weight categories instead of age groups, in recognition of the fact that the boys of Polynesian extraction have a tendency to be twice the size of other kids of the same age. Is this racist? No. Is it a sensible approach to a situation based on observations of people's race and the physical attributes associated with that race? Yes.

    Call me parochial using mostly English examples of fine black athletes (and please let's not get into hair-splitting over who's black, mixed race etc), but I submit Messrs Wade, Yarde, Watson, Eastmond, Robinson, (D) Armitage, Varndell, Habana and Isles as a small sample for your consideration. You might notice that not all of these are big blokes, so should we also object to DrG's use of the word "big" in that sweeping statement of his?

    To refuse to acknowledge this type of ability in a group of people is to deny people the due credit. I'm afraid your petty objection to DrG's comment represents all that is wrong with political correctness.

  • 10stonenumber10
    7:28 AM 20/03/2015

    This reminds me of age grade. We had a second term if we chose it... how bad could it be? I was already playing men's rugby... How wrong I was. I shoved the scrum half, he shoved me back, i'm certain the 10 cleared the lines before I landed. It took me until the 2nd year of uni to realise that while rugby is indeed a thinking man's game, all the brain cells in the world won't help when you're trying to do your best impression of a brick wall against someone 6 to 8 stone heavier than yourself.

    The physical gap is far too big at that age. It is like cheat-mode on Madden NFL, boost a running back to 99 all round, watch the touch downs roll in over the mere mortals!

  • halicarnassis
    6:53 AM 20/03/2015

    Get him on a schools tour to South Africa and New Zealand and FAST. He should have a good challenge with those grass-fed boys!

    On a serious note; I sincerely hope England Rugby take the tim to nurture this talent cos he could be immense. Faster than Bryan Habana and Carton Isles and akin to Jonah Lomu!

  • flanker2712
    2:49 AM 20/03/2015

    In what sense is he clearly a product of gridiron?

  • lakeside
    2:12 AM 20/03/2015

    he clearly a product of gridiron. doesn't take away from his raw attributes.

    the only question i have ...

    please tell me thats not "do rag" he has on under that padded helmet *shudders* ...good god.

  • 11:47 PM 19/03/2015

    True, but his dominance is certainly no reason to write him off

  • 11:46 PM 19/03/2015

    "The big fast black kid" really DrG? His his colour that important?

  • 11:45 PM 19/03/2015

    Yes u r right, no use even looking twice at him

  • 11:45 PM 19/03/2015

    Quit after getting knocked down? Who would we have left?

  • drg
    9:22 PM 19/03/2015

    As someone who has been on the wrong end of a few results against teams that played "pass it to the big fast black kid and watch him rampage" I can feel their pain!

    As someone mentioned above, the genetic lottery certainly can cause havoc. What I hope is that this kid doesn't rest on his laurels. He's big, he's fast... against 15 years olds.. but he has a very good base to start with! All the best!

  • lafrip
    6:00 PM 19/03/2015

    I know that is impressive,

    But this is shit.

    First there's no real opposition (you might see the very bad posture of the tackler ..)

    Then, in this age range there are lot of differences between player because of growth.

    Probably, we'll never see him in a great championship ...

    sorry for my poor english :)

  • 4:32 PM 19/03/2015

    Holy sh1t some serious natural attributes there. Would love to know if he can pass or kick at any decent standard. Being an u-15s centre that runs a sub 11 second 100 metres he doesn't have to at the moment but eventually a suspect skills set will be found out

  • flanker2712
    1:49 PM 19/03/2015

    That is truly phenomenal.

    On that first try, between the 10m line and the 22, he just steps on the gas and makes his own winger look like a prop!

  • bonrad
    12:14 PM 19/03/2015

    His poor opposite number probably should hang up his boots with immediate effect. As for the poor sod who got handed off so memorably, I'm recommending some therapy and an extended break to contemplate the meaning of life and why some people win the genetic lottery, and why he had the pleasure of being in the way of one of those specimens.

  • stroudos
    12:12 PM 19/03/2015

    Well that's the England centre partnership for RWC2019 sorted then: Tuilagi & Johnson-Fisher. Might not be very subtle but I wouldn't like to play against that combo...

  • stroudos
    12:10 PM 19/03/2015

    That is the most brutal "don't argue" I think I've seen at any level! Poor kid seemed to hang in the air!

    Nice turn of phrase from the commentator too - pushed him over like a cardboard cutout!!

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