England call was a tasty treat for shocked Jacob!
JACOB Umaga revealed he was cooking dinner for ‘the girl he is seeing’ after meeting her mother for the first time when he found out about his England call-up.
The Wasps fly-half’s inclusion in Eddie Jones’ squad for the Six Nations was a major shock after making only four Gallagher Premiership starts in his young career so far.
“It was 8.30, maybe 9 o’clock. I was actually at a girl I’m seeing’s house, I was making dinner. I’d just met her mum for the first time, it all came in one big moment.
“I got added to the group chat from the admin, a lady named Charlotte who handles all the logistics stuff for the next few weeks. I thought I’d been pranked in a way. Then I had a phone call from (Wasps coach) Matt Everard as well, he said we’re buzzing for you.”
He went on to say: “I was on the phone, and she was like ‘why are you not talking?’, I’ve just been added to a group chat. I tried to keep it level headed but she asked ‘what’s wrong, what’s wrong?’, then the phone calls started coming
in.
“I had a little look through it to see who was in. I saw Launchers [Joe Launchbury, Elliot [Daly],
Jonathan Joseph, I thought this looks like it could be something. Gabe Oghre gave me a call, he was with Jonathan Joseph at the time, he used to live with him when he was at Bath, and I was like ‘oh this is real’, it’s actually happening.”
Umaga had a night to digest the news before it officially broke, but not before he phoned home to tell his parents.
“I called him last night and all I could hear was screaming down the phone from my dad,” he said.
“My mum didn’t believe me at first, she said ‘you’re talking nonsense’, I called her back and said, ‘no, it’s real’ she started screaming. She’s really proud.”
Umaga revealed he had no indication that the biggest moment of his career was on the horizon before being added to the group.
His attention was on completing his head injury protocols after suffering a concussion against Northampton Saints a fortnight ago.
He went on: “It was absolutely out of the blue, because of the concussion I wasn’t really thinking about anything else, I was just worried about the game on Saturday and just trying to get back fit for that.
“It’s pretty surreal.
“It’s pretty mental, it’s been a crazy 24 hours since finding out. “It still hasn’t really settled in. “I woke up this morning and I was like ‘did that actually just happen?’, I was in the shower thinking, ‘this can’t be real’.”