Why England chose Dolly, the hooker Sale cut loose over the phone
It's been quite the year for Nic Dolly, the 22-year-old from Sydney who is set to win a debut cap for England this Saturday after Eddie Jones named him on the bench for the Autumn Nations Series finale versus the Springboks. Injury to Jamie George opened the door for his inclusion, Jamie Blamire getting promoted into the starting XV and Dolly getting asked to take over the bench hooker duties.
The selection caps an extraordinary rise for the Australian who represented England at age-grade level only to find his progress at club level limited in recent years. Having initially honed his skills at youths level in New South Wales, he joined Sale in 2017 and was quickly included in the England U18s.
He then went on to play age-grade U20s but his club action was transient, Dolly making loan appearances for Sale FC, Rotherham Titans and Jersey Reds before getting released by the Sharks and then arriving into the Coventry squad for the start of the delayed Championship season last March.
Then came a career-changing call. Leicester were short at hooker and the emergency recruit has rapidly gone from strength to strength, scoring six tries in seven appearances this season to help the Tigers lead the way at the top of the Gallagher Premiership.
"He is a similar story to Dylan Hartley," enthused Eddie Jones when asked about the selection of Dolly, the uncapped hooker, on the England bench to face the Springboks. "So we had Dylan Hartley and Chris Robshaw and James Haskell in today [Thursday] to watch training and chat with the blokes over lunch because they have been a big part of this team and Dylan and Dolly have got very similar stories.
"They both left their country to come and try their hand in another part of the world. Both had a heritage to play for England. Dolly has been at Sale, was told he wasn't required by phone call, was going to play for Coventry. Leicester had some problems with their hooker and he has taken his chance and has been impressive.
"He is a good tough player, wants to learn. He will give you everything he has got and that is all we are expecting on Saturday, He gives us everything he has got."
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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