Jack Nowell posts three-word reaction to his La Rochelle debut

Jack Nowell got his club career in France underway on Thursday evening, debuting for La Rochelle in a pre-season friendly versus Bordeaux in Dax. The England winger decided at the end of the 2022/23 campaign with Exeter that he wouldn’t be staying in England for the summer to compete for a spot in his country’s Rugby World Cup squad.

The 30-year-old was last capped when Eddie Jones was in charge for the 2022 Autumn Nations Series.

Having since signed a deal to switch to the Top 14 for the 2023/24 season, Nowell felt it best that he arrived in France in time to do the full pre-season at his new club and get his wife and young family settled into their new surroundings rather than train with Steve Borthwick’s England.

Nowell’s decision to summer in France was rewarded with a debut win for his new club, La Rochelle defeating Top 14 rivals Bordeaux 26-15 in a match where the ex-England winger unusually lined out from the start at outside centre in the No13 shirt.

The reigning Heineken Champions Cup holders, who comfortably defeated Nowell’s Exeter in the semi-finals last April before dramatically beating Leinster in the following month’s final, was in an XV that saw Ihaia West and Tawera Kerr-Barlow renew their half-back partnership following West’s return to the club after a single season at Challenge Cup winners Toulon.

La Rochelle tweeted a post-game picture of Nowell playing in his new club colours and he soon replied: “Felt good that.”

It was in May, just a couple of days after it emerged that Nowell told England he was unavailable for RWC training squad selection, that he explained to RugbyPass his reasons for moving to France in time for La Rochelle’s pre-season before their Top 14 campaign begins away to Montpellier on August 20.

“Don’t get me wrong, it was a hard decision. Originally, I was going to be named in the provisional (England) squad, which is going to come out soon, but the reaction has been very positive.

“This is a decision I haven’t just made over the last couple of weeks, it was probably months and months ago now that I made the decision, so I have actually had a long time to think about it and to dwell on it and I’m sticking by it. It is the best decision I could have made for the family.

“It’s hard moving, very hard. If it was just me and my wife, it would be a lot easier but the fact that we have got three kids and one of them being a new-born does make it a little bit harder.

"The first thing I want to make sure of is they are happy and settled. It’s not just as easy as packing a couple of bags and off you go.

“I need to make sure we have got a suitable house for them, I need to make sure we have a decent car, that we are in a nice area and then we have also got to sort schools and stuff like that.

"As much in the background I am trying to get myself ready and get my body ready, I’d say the majority of my thoughts at the moment is making sure that they get settled as quickly as possible.”