{"id":392990,"date":"2025-09-02T22:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392990\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T22:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:24:10","slug":"jare-oguntibeju-ready-to-make-his-mark-at-glasgow-as-he-eyes-up-career-defining-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392990\/","title":{"rendered":"Jare Oguntibeju ready to make his mark at Glasgow as he eyes up “career-defining” season"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is still a rawness about his game that comes with being such a late convert, his progress not helped by the serious knee injury that sidelined him for an extended period at a key stage in his development.<\/p>\n

Oguntibeju, though, is not hampered by self-doubt. The arrival of Scotland cap Alex Craig<\/strong> to Scotstoun has added additional competition to an already crowded second-row department but Oguntibeju feels he has reached an age \u2013 still just 23 \u2013 where he wants to become a regular in Franco Smith<\/strong>\u2019s plans, labelling this a pivotal year in his career development.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The last 12 months] has been crazy to say the least,\u201d he admits. \u201cI was more involved than I thought I would be. So, I was grateful for that. It was my first season and I think I did okay. There are still things I need to work on, essentially. But I think I could give myself the benefit of the doubt because it\u2019s my first year. But I\u2019m 23 now. I didn\u2019t have the luxury of coming in young. I\u2019ve not been in this high-profile environment coming through the academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve only been a year on the professional side. Whereas if I\u2019d been here at 18, maybe my development would have been further along. So, I\u2019m kind of playing catch-up to a lot of people who have gone through that route. I don\u2019t really have the time. I have to learn things much quicker. My aspirations are to be an international, be a Lions player. But if I want to keep going on that path, I think 23 is a good age to start seeing it, really.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season will define how the rest of my career goes. It\u2019s very important in terms of my goals to be a regular and also somewhat of a stand-our player this season or at least projected to be one. I\u2019m excited to see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

His undoubted talent and positive attitude continue to be augmented by hard work, the player spending a large part of the off-season looking to hone his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had like two, three weeks off and then I went down to London for about four weeks. Just worked with a performance coach down there for a couple of weeks on some work-on stuff. Franco has always said movement around the park, speed and agility are work-ons for me. So that\u2019s what I did this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The picture looked a lot different two years ago when Oguntibeju was studying at Brunel University and working his way back from that long-term injury. Professional rugby was just a pipe dream at that point but his conviction carried him through the difficult days.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife was completely the opposite back then,\u201d he reveals. \u201cI think I was at Brunel, just coming back from my knee injury. I started off, maybe one or two games playing for the ones, and then got dropped to the twos and stayed there the whole season. At that point, I wasn\u2019t really sure what rugby was looking like. It was probably the most difficult time in terms of the career. I think the light at the end of the tunnel was doing the Super Series [with Stirling] and I think I did okay then. I backed myself every time, so all I needed was an opportunity. I came here, did a trial, and\u2026 yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jare<\/p>\n

Jare Oguntibeu has his sights set on international rugby. Image: \u00a9Craig Watson www.craigwatson.co.uk<\/p>\n

Forging a career in sport was always the plan for so long that looked more likely to be in football rather than rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cNine to five has never really been my forte. When I was young, I always thought it was going to be football growing up. I played anywhere down the middle; striker, centre-mid or centre-back. I still like football. I never really was the biggest watcher, I always loved playing, but Chelsea\u2019s my team, so I still watch them from time to time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I then started rugby, and once I start something and I\u2019m fully dedicated, I knew that sport was something I was always going to strive to do. I knew it would come eventually, I just didn\u2019t know how long it would take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old habits die hard but Oguntibeju doesn\u2019t plan on showcasing his football skills any time soon. \u201cIt\u2019s become a thing in training where it\u2019s looked like I\u2019ve been able to do [a grubber kick] and everyone\u2019s like, \u2018Jare don\u2019t do it, don\u2019t do it!\u2019 I don\u2019t think that will happen anytime soon, but if it does, don\u2019t be too surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m allowed to play five-a-sides any more. But after the long days here, I wouldn\u2019t really have much energy anyway to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is still a rawness about his game that comes with being such a late convert, his progress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,85185,918,8979,4884,136020,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-392990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-divi","10":"tag-glasgow","11":"tag-glasgow-warriors","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-jare-oguntibeju","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115137050291240343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}