Giant winger Cokanasiga is prepared for pressure of playing for England after becoming ‘more mature’

Giant winger Joe Cokanasiga insists he is now prepared for the pressure of the England jersey after struggling to deal with early comparisons to Jonah Lomu.

Cokanasiga was parachuted into Eddie Jones’s plans for the 2019 World Cup after scoring five tries in his first six caps.

His powerful running was likened to All Blacks legend Lomu but the youngster was struck by injury and struggled to make an impact in Japan.

Now four years older and wiser, he has taken up mindfulness and cut out sweets to hit his prime form for the upcoming competition in France.

‘For me it’s different as it’s my second one, I feel I’m a lot more mature, I kind of know what’s coming,’ said the 25-year-old.

He believes he now knows how to control his emotions and will show his best for England

Cokanasiga has lost 4kgs over the summer, working with his girlfriend to improve his diet

‘Looking back, I wish I knew a lot more so I could deal with it better. When it all happened it was “Oh, this is unreal”, and then when you get dropped you feel it’s the end of the world but in reality it’s not. Now I know how to control my emotions around it and ignore certain stuff.

Cokanasiga has lost 4kgs over the summer, working with his girlfriend Rosie to improve his diet during the off season, including a clampdown on sugary sweets.

He is competing with the likes of Cadan Murley, Jonny May and Henry Arundell to force his way into Steve Borthwick’s final squad, having worked closely with a sports psychologist to prepare himself.

‘I’ve done a lot more mindfulness work, discovering my “why”,’ said Cokanasiga. ‘A lot of breathing exercises. One thing I got into was journaling before I sleep – after a big week of training having a nice debrief, or just writing down before games. I worked with Katie Warriner and that was the one thing I struggled with. The mind stuff has helped me a lot, especially this whole summer. It has made me more determined and hungry for it.

‘It’s a long process, going through my whole life from when I was born, how I grew up. My ‘Why’ has always been there, it’s just tapping into it. My “Why: is always my family, but you forget that you play for yourself as well. I always play for young Joe who wanted to be in that Rugby World Cup. I think back to 2015 and being a mascot for Fiji in that first game [against England], standing there and thinking “I want to do this, I want to play at Twickenham”. I like to think back and play for the young Joe.’