I was really desperate for a wee and thought they might not notice if I went during that part of training Jones wary of yellow fever
The colourful life of Jonny May
IT IS true none of the England side will be downing aftershave after today’s game against France as prop Colin Smart once did in Paris – lovely breath apparently – but spend time in the company of Jonny May and your faith that there are still characters in rugby would be restored.
It is often said the serious business of professionalism and the sausage-machine club academies have anaesthetised the sport.
But from going to the toilet midway through training to becoming addicted to colouring books, May is an off-centre oddbod around whom offbeat things happen.
A space cadet with warp factor speed, he is the lightning rod for many of the laughs in the England squad – most of them unintentional.
Even coach Eddie Jones, a shrewd assessor of personalities, cannot quite work him out, which is hardly surprising since May struggles himself.
“It is hard to say why but I’m probably a little bit of a different character in the group,” said May. “I don’t know how to describe myself. I’m a thoughtful person. I’m deep in thought and people probably wonder: ‘is he thinking about a lot or not a lot?’ and it is probably a combination of them both.”
This week, when defence coach Paul Gustard was trying to raise the temperature in the squad with a potted history of Anglo-French military wars, he made the mistake of asking May why he thought there had been so many. “Because they fell out?” offered May, puncturing the moment exquisitely.
The Gloucester flier has already provided international rugby’s comedy moment of the season so far with his panicstricken attempt to pack down as an emergency flanker against Argentina in November when England were down to 13 men. Mako Vunipola had enough on his plate without May grabbing hold of his leg and threatening to bring the whole edifice crashing down. “I didn’t really want to disturb the second row,” said May. “I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. That was quite evident, wasn’t it?”
During one training session in the autumn, Jones’ plan to run the side through some backline manoeuvres centred around
scrum-half Ben Youngs ran aground when May decided to answer the call of nature.
“I was desperate for a wee and thought they might not notice if I went during that part of it,” said May.
“Eddie was commentating: ‘Jonny has got the ball, he is going to go down the line’ and he was like ‘ah, where’s Jonny?’ As he said that, everyone was looking around and then I walked in trying to be subtle. Luckily he found it funny.”
Jones says he would love to spend a day inside the 26-yearold’s head – although he should be warned the experience may be disorientating.
If he nipped inside on the coach on the short journey from the Sion Park Hotel to Twickenham today he could find the strains of songs from animated Disney musicals echoing around. “It’s anything feel-good for me. It doesn’t need to be current,” said May, who will marry his fiancee Sophie in July.
“If there’s anything I like I hear on the radio I just add it to my playlist. At the moment I like Ed Sheeran’s new songs. He can write a cracking song, can’t he? My mother is a friend of his mother and when I was younger we’d have been playing football in the garden together but haven’t seen him in a while.”
After a 2016 in which he became addicted to colouring books during his long lay-off with a serious knee injury, May hopes for an uninterrupted 2017 – even if he starts it with stitches and a shiner from a clash of heads in training this week.
“Given the year I had last year, I always thought this could be my year,” he said. “To overcome the injury I had, and to do what I have done, probably exceeded my expectations. It was a pretty nasty injury. If I can do that, I know I can continue to get better and I feel like I am ready to play my best rugby now.”
Standing in his way today will be the giant figure of Virimi Vakatawa, one of two adopted Fijians on the French wings.
Swindon-born he may be and as white as a sheet but it turns out there is an element of the exotic to England’s singular flying machine too.
“We’ve an odd family tree,” said May. “My dad was adopted and we have a picture of my great gran and she looks like a Pacific Islander. We don’t know where she was from. I joke about having a bit of Islander in me with the Islanders at the club.”
Jonny May – unconventional to the core. WALES captain Alun Wyn Jones has issued a plea for players not to appeal for yellow cards as World Rugby’s high-tackle clampdown reaches the Six Nations.
The stiffening of sanctions brought in last month by the governing body has raised the prospect of a big increase in the numbers of players sin-binned or sent off.
Jones, who leads Wales in Italy tomorrow, hopes good sense will prevail from referees but has asked team-mates and opponents not to fan the flames.“Players and fans all have a responsibility when there’s a 50-50 not to scream for a yellow card when it’s actually a penalty,” said Jones.
“Nothing has really changed in that you can’t tackle people round the head but it’s up to the judiciary panels to decide intent, recklessness, etc, not players.”
Wales had top referee Nigel Owens in their camp last weekend to go through the directives but Jones believes players should rely on their natural instincts.
“If you go in thinking about it you will do yourself an injustice,” he said. “You’re going to start missing tackles potentially by trying too hard and putting other people in your defensive line under pressure.”
Recent Six Nations history favours an emphatic Wales win but as the only player in the starting XV from the Wales team beaten in Rome 10 years ago, Jones remains wary.
Italy’s new boss Conor O’Shea said: “It is possible to change our history and we want a great performance this weekend to make everybody understand we are on the right track.” JONES: Worries