Jack Willis has landed on his feet. Irish qualified through his grandfather, who was born in Northern Ireland, his chosen rugby path was Wasps and England before serendipity intervened and took him to the south of France and Toulouse.
When Wasps went out of business last year, Willis was forced into quickly finding work elsewhere. Within weeks he was attending team meetings and finding that all roads in Toulouse end in Trevor Brennan’s bar.
A new team with a new language, Willis is playing alongside Brennan’s son Josh, who may start on the bench this weekend, with Josh’s brother Daniel playing with Brive.
There’s a “how lucky am I” energy now flowing from the flanker, which he hopes to bring to Saturday’s meeting in Aviva Stadium for their Champions Cup semi-final game against Leinster.
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“I am quarter-Irish. My grandad is from Northern Ireland so he’s fully Irish. But I’ve always grown up supporting England, my brother (Tom) the same,” Willis says. “You are always looking into possibilities, you want to be playing international rugby but, for us, we see ourselves as English.”
Whether England still sees Willis as an England player is still in the air. The demise of Wasps was an exceptional circumstance rather than a preference decision to chase a better career in France. How that might influence the England rule that their international players cannot play abroad has yet to be teased out.
For now, Willis is experiencing for the first time, what it is like to compete in a European semi-final. He was in Dublin last month where he started at openside flanker against Ireland in the final match of the Six Nations Championship on St Patrick’s weekend.
If Josh van der Flier can recover from his ankle injury in time, it will be a reacquaintance of the two international backrowers.
“This is now probably the biggest week’s prep I’ve ever had in my club career,” Willis says. “The biggest club game I’ve ever been involved in. So, it really is pretty special and I feel very grateful.
“How special a game it is against Leinster, such a quality side to play up against. Their work rate, their fitness, they are very mobile, a mobile pack as well as the backline.
“They’ve also got a lot of strength in first phase, they clearly work a lot from their lineout plays, set plays, not just lineouts, tap and goes, things like that. They’ve got a lot of detail that they layer in and I think you see the quality throughout and the way they work for each other.
“This is the sort of game you want to be involved in as a player.”
The anomaly of Leinster conceding 62 points in their first defeat of the season to the Bulls in Loftus Versfeld last weekend is of little concern to Willis or Toulouse. It is almost just a distraction, although, it may not come across as a great look for Leinster or the United Rugby Championship competition.
There is no laissez-faire attitude coming from the French end. Toulouse went out of the competition at the semi-final stage last season, beaten 40-17 by Leinster in Dublin.
“I’m sure there has probably been some rotation there this week with all eyes on the big game coming up,” says Willis. “So, I think, no we wouldn’t really pay much attention to that.
“Obviously the exact same fixture, the semi-final. We want to make sure we put the best account of ourselves out there.
“If we can get our processes right throughout the game and make sure we are still in the game because Leinster come out of the blocks quite hard, the first 25 minutes. If we are in a position, where we are happy after 25 minutes, we know we’ve got a game on our hands and can really go after it.”
It is a season defining weekend for both clubs and Willis understands the stakes. He says Toulouse will try not allow home advantage be a factor.
“When it comes down to it, it’s 15 blokes against another 15 blokes on the pitch,” Willis says. “An incredible atmosphere... but I’m sure there will be a few Toulouse supporters heading there as well.”
