Young Exiles wings are on fire warns Naholo
WORLD Cup-winning All Blacks wing Waisake Naholo urges Eddie Jones to cap London Irish twinterrors Ollie HassellCollins and Ben Loader as a matter of priority.
Fiji-born Naholo, who bagged 16 tries in 26 matches for New Zealand, helping his adopted country to global glory in 2015, joined Irish in November and rates the livewire 21-yearolds so highly that he has had to up his own game to stay in a side that now has serious top six aspirations.
After watching HassellCollins bag four tries in last week’s victory over Gloucester, Naholo told The
Rugby Paper: “The guy’s on fire and it’s great to see young guys like that really taking their opportunities. He’s a really good player and I’d like to see him playing for England along with Ben Loader (below) because they’re both really electric guys and very skilful as well.
“Hassell-Collins is big, he’s quick and he can kick too; Ben is rapid as well and he can cover full-back, which gives him a lot of advantages over other players. We have some really good young players coming through and the competition is on for me just to get in our team. With Ollie and Ben lighting things up, you’ve got to be at your best every week just to fight for a spot.”
With promoted Irish proving they can live with the Premiership’s biggest names, having already claimed the scalps of Wasps, Leicester, Northampton, Harlequins and Gloucester, they face a return fixture against Wasps today knowing that a play-off place is within striking distance.
Naholo, among a number of big-name signings who include ex-Wallabies trio Adam Coleman and Sekope Kepu and Nick Phipps and Irish and Lions star Sean O’Brien, said: “We’ve got good depth and anyone who gets picked to play is ready to give it everything. That makes us strong as a group and we’re a close squad who all hang out together, which feels pretty good.
“Coming from where Irish were last year in the second division, it’s pretty good to see where we are now and we’ve just got to take it week-by-week and keep trying to go for a top spot.
“It won’t be easy, we know that, but if we stick to what we’re doing and keep allowing ourselves to learn and keep backing the game plans we come up with, we feel we’ll go pretty good.”
Naholo’s says his decision to leave New Zealand and turn his back on any further chances of representing the All Blacks was borne of a desire to prove himself in Europe.
He turned down a chance to join Clermont Auvergne five years ago, so a second opportunity to play in the north was something the ex-Highlanders and Taranaki man felt he could not refuse.
“I’m getting old now,” laughs Naholo, 28. “I could have gone to Clermont in 2015 but I’m glad I stayed in New Zealand for a bit longer. I wasn’t really planning on playing for the All Blacks at the time but everything came right for me in Super Rugby that year, one thing led to another and I ended up playing at the World Cup, which was a brilliant experience. “It was disappointing missing out last year, but you can’t dwell on those things so I moved on pretty quickly, played in the Mitre 10 Cup and then concentrated on coming here. Every now and then you’d watch a game and wish you’d been playing for the All
Blacks, but I had plenty of other things to focus on and I’m loving it here now.”
Naholo added: “A big motivation for me coming to Irish was that I like London and its historic places. I’d seen the facilities here before during the 2015 World Cup so I knew where I was going. When the opportunity popped up, I grabbed it because I didn’t want to stay in New Zealand and retire without trying something else. “I’ve just had my first child and my family should be joining me here in a few weeks, so I want to make the most of this opportunity.
“I went from Fiji to New Zealand and things were very different, but then you come to England and everything’s on a different level again with the historic buildings and all, so I really want to get around and see things while enjoying my rugby.
“The rugby’s a bit tougher here and you run into a lot of big boys. I’ve been put on my ar*e a few times but I’ll just try to give my best.”