Young prop James Whitcombe hopes to follow in family footsteps by reaching first-team status at Leicester Tigers, a club where his dad Martin made 68 senior appearances in the 1980s.

There is a rich rugby heritage in the family beyond too, with Martin’s grandfather Frank Whitcombe described among the greatest Welsh rugby league forwards.

The family home is in West Yorkshire and James played for Skipton and then Bradford & Bingley as well as for Woodhouse Grove School.

He was part of the Tigers academy squad that celebrated back-to-back Under-18 League title wins in 2017/18 and 2018/19, and received an England Under-18s call-up, before spending the summer of 2019 alongside team-mate Sam Eveleigh on a player-exchange visit with Sydney University FC in Australia.

He stepped up to the Development ranks at Tigers for the 2019/20 campaign.

Follow James Whitcombe on social media

Instagram: @james_whitcombe | Twitter: @WhitcombeJames