Stokes Driven By Imposter Syndrome

London Irish fullback James Stokes is still locked in a mental battle to convince himself he deserves to be playing in the top flight.

- Neil Fissler

Stokes, 29, made his Premiership debut for Irish in December, 2019 after spending a decade taking the unconventional route through the National Leagues.

And, despite a stellar season for the Exiles, Stokes – whose best friend at school was Saracens’ former London Irish wing Alex Lewington – still feels like an imposter.

“I feel I don’t deserve to be here which makes me work so much harder for everything,” Stokes told The Rugby Paper.

He started his career with Championship outfit Nottingham but left in 2013 because of a lack of game time and appeared lost to the professional game when he took a job as an environmental engineer.

He needed to rediscover his love for the game and did that by spending three seasons playing under Rowland Winter at Cambridge, winning a National Two south title in 2016.

Stokes followed Winter to Coventry and was the leading scorer when the Butts Park Arena side won the National One crown in 2018 earning himself a spot in The Rugby Paper Dream XV.