Lewington in a rush to fulfill his Test ambition
CONFIDENT wing Alex Lewington believes competing with Saracens’ galaxy of international stars will aid his bid to beat a path into England’s World Cup reckoning.
Lewington clocks on with the Premiership champions this week after notching 27 tries in 74 topflight outings for a London Irish side that invariably struggled.
Test fliers Liam Williams, Shaun Maitland and the returning Dave Strettle now stand in his way. However, Lewington, 26, told The Rugby Paper: “Playing for England is still a massive ambition of mine and that was a huge factor behind making the move at this stage.
“I’ve probably got two more years where I could achieve international honours and if you look at the England team now, many of the players who contribute come from Saracens.
“It’s not often you get opportunities to go to clubs like this and play and train alongside the calibre of players they have, so that’s what I want to push myself to do.
“If I could perform well at London Irish and score tries there, hopefully Saracens see huge potential in me and I can offer them a lot when I have more front foot ball. I’d back myself to keep progressing and, hopefully, that England chance will eventually come.”
Lewington added: “Boys like Williams, Maitland and Strettle are top quality but that’s another reason why I wanted to go. I want to be competitive against them and with Liam and Shaun likely to be away with Test teams, hopefully I’ll get opportunities.
“I aim to give a good reflection of myself to the point where they can worry about me pushing them. “It does feel a bit surreal going to a club that’s achieved so much over the last ten years when I’ve been used to relegation battles, but that winJOHAN ning mentality is something I want to pick up from them and I feel there’s a lot I can bring to the table as well.”
Lewington failed to break through at Leicester after coming from their academy, but gained confidence on loan at Nottingham before joining London Irish in 2013.
“London Irish was the best move I could have made at the time,” said Lewington, who represented England Saxons in 2016 before suffering an eight-month injury lay-off.
“Irish gave me great opportunities and it’s a fantastic club to be part of, it’s just a shame they couldn’t seem to compete with bigger clubs in terms of squad size.
“I had an amazing time and couldn’t have asked for more really, but it’s a new chapter now and I aim to take my chance at a club that is used to winning trophies.”