Oh brother! Jack reveals agony at being made redundant
I DON’T KNOW WHAT FUTURE HOLDS FOR ME OR TOM SAYS WILLIS AFTER CLUB’S COLLAPSE
JACK Willis has expressed his anguish that he may never play with his brother Tom again after Wasps entered administration last week.
The pair graduated from Wasps’ academy to the first team together and went on to make a combined 149 appearances in black-and-gold, but were part of the 167 players, coaches and staff made redundant. Both have yet to find another club.
Jack is currently in Jersey, training with England ahead of the Autumn Internationals, and has been linked with Bristol. Though clubs have been connected to Tom, there’s no concrete move so far.
Speaking in St Brelade, Jack said: “We were all pretty stunned. We didn’t expect the news to be so immediate. We were just expecting to be told that administration was official, not that we were all made redundant.
“Everyone was upset and we were all going up to each other. I was quite upset immediately, then I’d sort of compose myself, go up to someone else and get upset again.
“Then I went up to my brother and that, for me, has been the hardest part of it. I don’t know what the future holds but I love playing with him and alongside him.”
Jack joined the club ahead of the 2015/16 season and played in the academy with his brother before moving up to the first team.
He won the Premiership Player of the Year in 2019/20 as Wasps reached the final at Twickenham.
By that stage he had been joined as a first-team regular by Tom, and the pair played five games together on that run to the final.
Though Wasps struggled to match that success over the next two seasons, the the future looked bright with the Willis brothers joining other young stars like Alfie Barbeary, Charlie Atkinson, Gabriel Oghre, Will Porter and Paolo Odogwu. Administration
has destroyed that prospect. “It was a pretty eerie atmosphere – it is hard to describe how it felt,” said Jack. “They started to talk about how to claim redundancy pay and everyone sat there completely stunned.
“You think in your head: ‘Have I actually lost my job?’ and you realise everyone in that room, as of that minute, no longer had a job at Wasps, and who knows what the future holds for everyone individually and also the club?
“It was pretty scary to be honest with you, and pretty upsetting.” Meanwhile, Dan Frost and Kiran Mcdonald have signed for new clubs, taking the number of Wasps players to get fixed up to double figures.
Hooker Frost has joined Exeter Chiefs, the club he represented in the A League before moving to the
Cornish Pirates and attracting the attention of Wasps’ Lee Blackett.
Frost certainly impressed in his short Wasps spell, scoring seven tries in 35 appearances.
Scottish lock Mcdonald has signed a three-month deal with Munster where he joins John Ryan. Mcdonald played all four of Wasps’ Premiership games this season.
You think in your head: ‘Have I actually lost my job?’ and you realise everyone in that room, as of that minute, no longer had a job.
Jack Willis
n Wasps have been formally suspended from the Gallagher Premiership Rugby and Premiership Rugby Cup for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
The Rugby Football Union yesterday confirmed Wasps’ ban after they went into administration earlier this month, and the club will now be relegated from the Premiership.
The RFU added: “The RFU’S Club Financial Viability Group is encouraged by the progress made by the administrators and it has taken the decision to suspend the team in order to support the prospect of securing a deal with the right investor and giving the club the best chance for a long-term sustainable future.”