| Birth name | Jamal Michael Ford-Robinson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 11 September 1993 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Bristol, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 118 kg (18 st 8 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jamal Ford-Robinson (born 11 September 1993) is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a prop for Premiership Rugby side Gloucester. [1]
Ford-Robinson has also spent time wrestling under the ring name 'Krisys' before returning to play for Bristol Bears. [2] [3]
Ford-Robinson was born in Bristol, at the age of 5 years old he moved with his mother to Penryn and started playing rugby at the local club. [4] He has many half-siblings, at least 10, through his father's different relationships. [4]
Ford-Robinson had trials at Bristol and Leicester before starting his rugby career in Leicester Tigers's academy at 16. Ford-Robinson struggled with a conversion to the position of hooker from his preferred position of prop, said he probably suffered from anxiety during this period, [4] and left Leicester mid-way through his second season. [4] Motivated by the videos of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ford-Robinson then moved to National League 1 club Cambridge to continue his dream of playing professional rugby. Ford-Robinson played for two seasons under coach Craig Newby who he knew from Leicester. [4] After a first season where Cambridge were relegated from National League 1, Ford-Robinson played regularly in National League 2. At the end of that season he played in the 2014 County Championship for his native Cornwall, scoring a try at Twickenham in the final. [4]
After the final he joined RFU Championship side Cornish Pirates in 2014. [5] [6]
Ford-Robinson then switched to Bristol Bears for the 2015–16 season and aided in their promotion into the Premiership that season. [7] The prop made 48 appearances in a Bristol shirt and suffered with the club as they were relegated back to the Championship at the end of the 2016–17 campaign. [8] The young prop left his birthplace of Bristol to join Northampton Saints for the 2017–18 season after signing for the Midlands club on 2 February 2017. [9]
In March 2019, Ford-Robinson signed a 2-year deal with Premiership Rivals Gloucester Rugby. [10] Following the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, he started making humorous videos on the video-sharing website TikTok. The videos gained wide attention from the rugby community which lead to Ford-Robinson winning Premiership Rugby's Community Player of the Month. [3] [11]
Ford-Robinson came off the bench as a substitute for the Gloucester side that defeated Leicester in the 2023–24 Premiership Rugby Cup final to lift the trophy. [12] At the end of that season he started in the final of the 2023–24 EPCR Challenge Cup at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which they lost against Sharks to finish runners up. [13]
In 2014 Ford-Robinson played for England Counties XV against a Georgian side. [4] While at Bristol, Ford-Robinson was noticed by coach Eddie Jones who selected him for a senior England side for a non-cap friendly against the Barbarians at Twickenham on 28 May 2017. Ford-Robinson come off the bench as a substitute. [14] [15] He was subsequently included in their 2017 tour of Argentina squad as injury cover for Nick Schonert. [16]