Topsy Ojo: Day of the jackal as Jack Willis can show turnover skills on England debut

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Topsy Ojo13 November 2020

Jack Willis has shown in the Premiership this season that he is no flash in the pan.

He has just been so consistent and the stats speak for themselves. Jack has been head and shoulders above anyone else in terms of turnovers, but the key is that he did it consistently. He didn’t have 10 in one game and then one in another.

It wasn’t just that, though — if there was any kind of big moment or play, it usually involved Jack.

I remember covering Wasps’ last league game, when he didn’t actually play. Jimmy Gopperth got man of the match and he joked in his interview, saying: “Well, I’ve only got it as Jack isn’t playing!”

That tells you the story about how influential Jack has been for his club this season. That’s where the excitement around him comes and it’s about now seeing whether he can transfer that to the international stage.

It is a tough ask for him to try to displace Tom Curry or Sam Underhill, but I think the main edge that Jack has over those two guys, who have been phenomenal as a pair, is his jackaling over the ball.

He is possibly better than both Curry and Underhill at that, so you are looking at an extra three, four or five turnovers a game maybe.

In a way, Jack might be a bit of a hybrid of Curry and Underhill, because he has also got a big physical presence.

So, if you add that to his ability to steal turnovers, we could witness something special at Twickenham tomorrow in England’s Autumn Nations Cup opener.

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Looking at the team as a whole, I thought Eddie Jones might experiment a bit more against Georgia, but throwing a lot of debutants in the team at once can either go well or backfire.

Look at Jack. He has got Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola either side of him. He’s got Joe Launchbury in front of him too at second row. That’s a ton of experience there so he doesn’t have to worry about too many other things, just focus on his game.

It is the same with Ollie Lawrence as well, who is making his first start at centre. He has got Henry Slade one side of him and Jonathan Joseph the other. That will help him settle.

The bench looks exciting too. Joe Marchant and Max Malins should bring that youthful exuberance.

Max is very exciting to watch. He can control a game but he takes risks – the calculated ones that are worth it. He can be a game-breaker, someone who opens teams up.

Joe Marchant is the same. He raised a lot of eyebrows when he left Harlequins to go to New Zealand for six months, but actually I think a lot of people were envious of that opportunity to go down there and study and improve. He’s back now and we should see the benefits of that in his game.

The Autumn Nations Cup will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from November 13. Get in on the action by subscribing to Amazon Prime. It costs £7.99 a month, £79 a year or try a 30-day free trial. 

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