May a force to be reckoned with
His devil-may-care attitude hides wing’s professionalism
THE fast guy behind England’s fast starts was slowing things down yesterday.
Jonny May was back at his Midlands home, catching up on mundane “household admin”. It was the equivalent of Alan Shearer celebrating winning the Premier League by creosoting his fence.
The change of pace was welcome. Today represents May’s last chance to draw breath before heading back to England’s training camp in London tomorrow and setting the dials for the Cardiff showdown against Wales.
The 66-second try against France on Sunday which sent the Leicester wing on his way to a hat-trick – and triggered a performance Warren Gatland rated as England’s best in five years – made it three Tests in a row in which May has scored in the first three minutes.
As habits go, that is a handy one to take to the Principality Stadium for a 28-yearold who is surging up England’s all-time tryscoring list at a rate of knots.
“One day I will look back and be really proud of what I have done but I have not got the time to do that at the moment. We have got a big game coming up,” said May.
“I have scored a try early in the last three games but that’s because of the way the team is coming out. I have just been lucky enough to get over.
“My job is to put the ball down over the line. It is probably the easiest job in the team when the guys inside me are doing a brilliant job.”
May is a cherished member of the England squad, not just for his rugby but for the levity – much of it unintentional – he brings to the set-up.
Eddie Jones recalls the time he was running through a backline move at England’s tree-lined training base in Surrey only to find May had gone missing. He had popped into the woods to answer the call of nature.
In his Gloucester days he once, for no apparent reason, interrupted a solemn coaching debrief with an impromptu chicken impression.
May’s personal life is no better. This is after all the man who stumbled on the way up the aisle and almost put now-wife Sophie into the front row on their wedding day 18 months ago.
This untameable random element to him – the one that had May mulling over a North Korean backpacking trip – is part of his appeal. But it also serves to hide the professionalism that has helped him evolve from a budding sprinter into a rugby player capable first of beating Ireland at their own aerial game and then hammering Frenchmen into touch at Twickenham.
“People think he’s just this fast kid who happens to be good at rugby,” said teammate Jamie George. “But he puts a huge amount of time into his preparation, probably more than anyone else in the squad, so he deserves all the praise.”
Even the speed is not purely God-given. As a teenager at Hartpury College May used to trek from Gloucestershire to East London and pay for sessions with sprint coach Jonas Dodoo, who now works with the England squad. He has also trained with Marlon Devonish and has twice been to Texas – at his own expense – to work at Michael Johnson’s performance centre.
This is a player determined to maximise the chance he has been given – and at the moment, in an England side who are flying, he is doing exactly that.
The bonkers strain is never far from the surface. Even on his day of triumph against France there was a crazy quick throw-in five metres from the line which saw the outnumbered Chris Ashton swallowed up as soon as he received the ball. But May has become undroppable.
“I am a student of the game and I want to keep learning and keep up with the way the game is going. I am constantly looking at ways to get better,” May said.
“I feel like I have been gradually improving, hopefully for a long period of time. I am not the type of guy to get ahead of myself. I just want to keep working hard.”
When he was Lions coach, Gatland overlooked May for the 2017 tour to New Zealand. He was probably right to do so, but were he to pick it now May would be a certainty.