The Jack Willis situation: 'It was a pretty smart play by England'
Wasps boss Lee Blackett has hailed the England decision to call the fit-again Jack Willis into their squads for the recent round four and five matches in the Guinness Six Nations. The fully mended back-rower, who is back in harness following the brutal ACL injury sustained in the February 2021 win over Italy at Twickenham, was just two games into his club comeback when the surprise call came from Pennyhill Park for the 25-year-old to rejoin Eddie Jones’ squad.
Willis trained with England for two days of their round four matchweek against Ireland before returning to Wasps to play Northampton in the Gallagher Premiership on March 13. Having come through his first full 80 minutes in that match in more than a year, Willis was then named in the round five England matchweek squad versus France.
Again, he was only with them for two days, Jones opting not to include Willis in the reduced squad of 28 that was taken to Paris for a match that was eventually lost 13-25 last Saturday night. However, Wasps are grateful for what the England call has done for their forward and they are now hopeful they can reap the benefits of this confidence booster in the weeks ahead as they look to finish high up the Premiership table.
“It has given confidence. When you are out for that long you are constantly thinking about coming back and playing for your club and that confidence that he knows England isn’t that far away, it was a pretty smart play by England,” reckoned Blackett when quizzed by RugbyPass about what the call-up did for Willis.
“I know it may have only been for a couple of days but to just pull him into the environment just gives him that little bit more and hopefully we can take advantage of that at Wasps for the rest of the season.
“He said he didn’t expect it after the Northampton game to get that call. But to do go down, they didn’t actually do that much training but to be down there just gave him that little bit more. He is so driven anyway, it’s hard to find more but when you just look at him, it meant a lot just to be included and go down there. I’m pretty sure Jack will be focused on playing really well for Wasps and he hopefully can get on that summer tour.”
Wasps are currently ninth in the Premiership, twelve points off the playoffs with six matches remaining - a schedule that commences with a home game this Saturday versus Newcastle. Blackett can’t wait for the rejuvenated Willis to wield even more of an influence as the weeks go by.
“Definitely. Even last season I think we played six games with him and we won all six. Eighteen months ago, when we got to the final, he was player of the year. He is a quality player and with anyone coming back from their ACL, Jack is only going to get better. Most times when people come back from that type of injury it takes them a couple of months to get back to their best, so I expect to see him getting better and better each week.”
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Don’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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