For Wigan Warriors’ rugby starboy, his ascension to the peaks of his sport has been no coincidence. He’s built a sturdy foundation, got the silverware to prove it – now, he’s set his sights on legacy.

There’s a certain inevitability about the rise of Junior Nsemba. Watch one half of a game in which he graces the pitch, and it’s easy to see why coaches rave about his work ethic and fans light up when he grasps the ball. Through rain or shine, he plays with awe-inspiring strategy and infectious charm. If the British Rugby Super League is in need of a new poster boy – he’s arrived. 

At just 21 years old, Nsemba’s been capped for England and is currently riding high in one of the league’s most storied clubs: his hometown’s Wigan Warriors. He debuted for the side in 2022, before making 15 senior appearances, aged 19, in the 2023 season. Fans were quick to arch over their seats for a closer look at the 6’5” teenager who traversed the pitch with lightning velocity and made tackles look as effortless as the post-match handshake. By the season’s end, he’d inked a four-year contract – upgraded to an unprecedented six-year deal in June 2024. 

As a back-rower, Nsemba is a cornerstone of the 13-man team, trusted with pushing his side forward with four key pursuits: tackling human walls, chasing opportunities, securing the ball, and leading the charge on the pitch. But beyond that power and precision lies something quieter and more humble. A young man whose ambition doesn’t impede humility. One who unwinds not with the chaos of nightlife but with the calculated patience of a chessboard (another game in which he’s found comfort), and who keeps his family as the core of his world.

Nsemba’s defining drive is the latter. “What I’m doing is for my family. It’s not for me. For all those times my mum told me not to go out or my dad told me not to do this, not to do that – it’s [about giving] back to them. It’s for my family in Cameroon and my parents at home, and my little brother and my sisters, because if I want my family to be successful, then I’ll be successful.” 

As a boy, his time with the oval ball had to be worked around his competing and first love – The Beautiful Game. However, “I was pretty dead at football,” he admits, “but I was playing football and rugby at the same time, so I had to come to a decision.” As you might have guessed, rugby clinched it. “Just because it felt like a family – the team that I was with at the time.” By age 11, he was well and truly making his mark on his boyhood club, Wigan St Judes. “I was a tall guy, so it was a big advantage. I felt like they accepted me for what I could bring in terms of my talent. I didn’t really know too much about the sport, but with the talent that I had at that age, it could only get better with professional coaching.”

It did, and by 16, he was steadily climbing the ranks through scholarship and academy training, hitting reserves before debuting in his present-day home in the Super League two years later. However, it was last year’s season – the first of his four-year contract – that might be remembered as Nsemba’s definitive breakout. “[That season] was a big thing for me,” he shares. “I started the year injured, so I was in crutches, and I built myself back up in a couple of months. Unfortunately, Willie Isa, who plays the same position as me, got injured, and it took him out for a while. My coach put me in, having the trust in me, and then each week I was just killing it and killing it and killing it.” 

To say the season was a success might be an understatement. The team emerged top of the table, for starters. But individually, Nsemba would walk away with the league’s Young Player of the Year Award, as well as selection for the annual Betfred Super League Dream Team – an all-star inter-team grouping of players chosen by a panel of journalists and broadcasters based on the season’s performances. Months later came his first England cap, too. “It was really special to me to represent my country,” he says. 

“I won a lot of things early on in my career. I can say, ‘I’ve done it,’ in a way some people haven’t who have been in a career for a long time,” he reflects. “It’s special. Obviously, I’m not going to dwell on it, because it’s sport. Anything can happen. One week I could win, one week I could lose. But 2024 was a very special year for me.”

“With great power comes great responsibility,” goes the aphorism spoken by the trusted philosopher Spider-Man. And in Nsemba’s story, said wisdom feels pertinent. Alongside the wins, the toll that comes with carving out a home on some of his sport’s grandest stages is something he’s still orienting himself with. Since the dawn of the game, the parasocial relationships between fans and players have proven volatile. Nsemba has already faced his share of backlash, on everything from misjudging on-pitch interceptions to giving up passes. “Obviously, we’re playing a sport in a town that loves rugby, but we’re still human,” he says. Regardless, any negativity is dwarfed by the vast support he also attracts – essential sustenance whether in the stadium or in between games online. “Junior by name. Senior by skillset,” says one YouTube comment under a video of his career highlights. “A jewel in Wigan’s crown,” says another.

Despite the weight of responsibility, bringing out the best in himself comes via a healthy dose of levity. “You want a bit of panache and a bit of ‘Shazam’ about you,” he says with a smug grin when asked how he maintains his standards under pressure. “You want to bring your own. You’ve made it this far – to the big boy League – you must have something about you, so show it. Showcase it.”

Off the pitch, he’s transferring that playful flair to his style. The well-worn teenage Nike tracksuits have been sidelined for a more curated, self-assured look of late. “My older sister was really into fashion, so she put me onto vintage clothes and baggier clothes. More chill vibes, things that I wouldn’t really wear when I was about 16 or 17,” he shares. “I feel like I’m way more comfortable now. I’m not the best dresser, but some of the fits that I’m pulling off now, some of the boys think that I’m going out somewhere when, really, I’m just going back home and watching a movie. But it’s just because I’m comfy and because colours are matching or colours are coordinating.”

Maturity beyond his years hasn’t just bolstered his fashion philosophies but that of his career so far, too. “It’s difficult because not everyone makes it,” he reflects. “It’s like a mental game as well as a physical game, so you need to be strong in both areas. But in the long run, it’s paid off well, which I’m happy for.” And the big question (even if far out) of retirement plans is one he’s accounted for as well. “After my career, I’d like to be a coach,” he says confidently and assuredly. But that humility and reverence for his roots still hold strong. “I want to be where I started. It would be good to coach the young boys at Wigan.”