Rugby World Cup 2023: Wales lock Christ Tshiunza completes World Cup journey

Christ Tshiunza has played eight internationals for Wales

Many rugby players have intriguing backstories when they reach the Rugby World Cup.

Not many are as diverse as Wales lock Christ Tshiunza, who will line up against Portugal in Nice on Saturday.

The 21-year-old has come a long way since arriving in the United Kingdom as a boy with his family from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At the time Tshiunza, who had four older sisters, could not speak English with his native language being French.

His family settled in Wales and moved around Cardiff. Tshiunza would attend Whitchurch High School, which has produced famous sports stars such as Sam Warburton, Gareth Bale and Geraint Thomas.

• Christ Tshiunza: From humble beginnings to playing for Wales

Tshiunza only started playing rugby properly when he was 15 and made his international debut at 19 against Fiji in Cardiff. He now finds himself on the world stage.

"It is very surreal, considering in 2010 I didn't even know what rugby was," said Tshiunza.

Christ Tshiunza with family after the win against Australia in November 2021

Do his family know now how rugby works now when they come to see him?

"They haven't got a clue!" he said.

"Even my family that come to the current games now, they haven't got a clue, they are like: 'Where's Christ, where's Christ? Oh, good job, you did something well today.'

"They don't know the rules, but I am glad they can come and support."

Tshiunza has enjoyed a rapid rise. Aged 17, before a Wales Under-18s tour to South Africa in August 2019, he said it was his ambition to be involved in the 2023 World Cup. That goal has now been realised.

"Four years ago I was saying I would love to go to the next World Cup," said Tshiunza.

"I was with Mason [Grady] four years ago, we were going to a Wales Under-18s tournament in South Africa, we were just like 'it would be class to go to the next World Cup', and now we are here.

"I feel like I am living a dream at the moment, so after all of this we'll look back and think 'wow, that was really good'. I am happy to be here and trying to enjoy every moment.

Christ Tshiunza with his first cap after playing against Fiji in November 2021

"It is different, you can tell by the preparation leading into this World Cup, the amount we have done, I have never experienced anything like that.

"It makes you realise how big a tournament this is, how seriously Wales are taking it."

Tshiunza and fellow Wales squad member Grady will make their World Cup debuts. The pair go back to competing against each other as schoolboys in different sports, including athletics.

In the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Schools Under-15s competition in May 2016, Tshiunza won a high jump competition in which Grady finished seventh.

It is this athletic ability that brought Tshiunza to rugby, although he only really took up the sport so he could play with his friends amid encouragement from teachers Steve Williams and Gwyn Morris.

"At the time when you are younger you don't realise how little things like that shape you later on," said Tshiunza.

"Stuff like high jump, I didn't know that was going to help me with my line-out, because I wasn't playing rugby properly at the time.

Christ Tshiunza has so far started all his games for Wales at flanker

"Throughout the years you look back and all that explosive line-out stuff, maybe comes from the little stuff I did when I was younger.

"It is what I say to boys that maybe haven't kicked on yet, everything they are doing now and a few years ago is going to help them down the line. They just don't know it yet."

Tshiunza, Grady and Dafydd Jenkins were part of the Wales Under-20s set-up last summer and have progressed to the senior squad together.

"A year ago if we said we are definitely going to come to the World Cup, no one would believe us," he said.

"We were just talking, thinking out loud. We are grateful for the opportunity we have been given, it is an opportunity to play on the biggest rugby stage, we have all got to take it with both hands."

Tshiunza and Exeter team-mate Jenkins, 20, will form one of Wales' youngest lock partnerships against Portugal with a combined age of 41.

That is only four years more than recently retired 37-year-old Alun Wyn Jones, who started the final Six Nations match against France in March.

"It is still a bit weird," said Tshiunza.

"We are room-mates as well, and sometimes we just like lay in bed and look over at each other and say: 'What are we doing here, what have we done to deserve this?'

"It is surreal at the moment, but after this tournament we will look back and be glad we did it together."

Christ Tshiunza and Dafydd Jenkins are Exeter and Wales team-mates

The two will probably line up alongside each other for the anthem together in Nice. So what will Tshiunza be thinking at that moment?

"I probably will be thinking about starting playing rugby a bit later on, in school, and if it wasn't for the people I met in school, I probably wouldn't be here now," said Tshiunza.

"When I sing the anthem I'll think about the people who helped me along the way, my family, my school friends I started playing with, my school coach Steve Williams who took me under his wing.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those people, so I'll think about them."