WHERE THERE’S A WILLIS THERE’S A WAY...
Battering ram and prize winner Jack would trade it all for Wasps glory
JACK WILLIS has won every individual prize along with pretty much every breakdown in English club rugby’s longest season.
But the Wasps star would give up all the personal accolades for his club to emerge from their Covid nightmare as champions of England.
At Twickenham this evening, the Coventry outfit take on European kings Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership grand final.
They do so after Brad Shields, Kieran Brookes, Simon McIntyre and Alfie Barbeary were ruled out of selection by a coronavirus outbreak which came close to forcing Wasps to forfeit. Willis admitted: admitted “I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few moments when I thought ‘the dream is over’.
“It does go through your head, but it’s not done until it’s done.”
Unlike tomorrow’s EnglandBarbarians game, cancelled due to a bunch of Covidiotic Baa Baas breaching protocols, Wasps were blameless.
Still, they have paid a high price, the loss of four key forwards increasing the odds on Exeter getting the ball into the red zone – from where they seldom return empty-handed.
“They are extreme ly dangerous in that area,” said Willis. “But we don’t give up without a bit of a fight.”
It is too simplistic to say one family stands between Chiefs and the double but but, with Jack and brother Tom in Wasps’ back row, only just.
Boss Lee Blackett will need them to exert the same influence they have throughout Wasps’ remarkable surge to the final post-lockdown if the trophy is to be added to Willis’ creaking mantelpiece.
“I would trade all of my awards in order to win this one,” said ‘ Jackal-ing’ Jack. “It’s been a crazy couple of weeks what with those and the ups and downs of the Covid stuff.
“It could have been 50-50 on the plug being pulled going into Tuesday testing and waiting for the results on Wednesday.
“But as much as everyone probably thought the game wasn’t going to go ahead, we kept the mindset that it would would. We’ve spent the last eight weeks prepping for a succession of games with short turnarounds and done all right.
“So who needs a full training week? Let’s crack on and get into it.”
The 12- year gap since Lawrence Dallaglio last lifted the trophy for Wasps is a reminder of the need for today’s team to grab this opportunity.
“Young lads might think we will have a final every couple of years,” said Willis. “But it doesn’t work like that.”
Win or lose, what rugby needs at HQ tonight is an occasion to remember – to distract from the deep embarrassment caused by tomorrow’s cancellation.