EXETER v ULSTER WING WARRIOR
Nowell is ready to play through the pain again for club and country
WHEN Jack Nowell leapt from the ground to take a seemingly impossible one-handed catch and score a wonder try last Saturday the young Exeter Chief provided final confirmation he is back to his scintillating best.
‘Jack Nowell is having the time of his rugby life right now,’ purred BT Sport commentator Nick Mullins, while his co-pundit and former England winger Ugo Monye compared the extraordinary score against champions Saracens to NBA star Michael Jordan’s legendary ability to hang in the air.
A week earlier, former England centre Will Greenwood had been even more gushing after Nowell outshone England rival Semesa Rokoduguni as Exeter saw off West Country rivals Bath in the Aviva Premiership. ‘Jack Nowell utterly ridiculously brilliant... as good as you’ll ever see,’ said Greenwood on Twitter.
Nowell is in the form of his life and, fitness permitting, will start on England’s right wing against France at Twickenham on Febuary 4 after starring on last summer’s tour of Australia. Since then he has had surgery on the right thumb he damaged in April before a quad injury suffered in training with England further delayed his return.
‘I had the best part of 28 weeks without playing any rugby so it’s fantastic to be back,’ he said. ‘It was a very frustrating experience to be sidelined for such a long time with successive injuries.
‘On the positive side, being out for that amount of time has to be good for your body. I’ve been able to do all the pre-hab and rehab stuff and been able to come back stronger than I was before.
‘Looking back on last season, I’d been through the World Cup and then straight back into the Pre- miership and then on tour. The games soon mount up and I was ready for a break. I hate being on the sidelines. But in the long term it’s unquestionably been good for me and enabled me to strengthen my whole body.
‘I’ve done a lot of work on my knee as well as my shoulders, my neck and other parts of my body which should help prevent future injuries. I feel as strong as I ever have as a professional rugby player and I’m excited about what lies ahead.’
After impressing in his first Six Nations campaign under Stuart Lancaster in 2014, Nowell’s dream of playing a lead role in a home World Cup the following year were dashed when a long-standing knee injury caused him to miss the summer tour to New Zealand and slip down England’s pecking order as a result.
Desperate not to miss another tour, when Nowell severed ligaments on either side of his right thumb in last May’s Premiership semi-final win over Wasps, he opted to hide the severity from England head coach Eddie Jones so he could travel to Australia, where he featured prominently in all three Test victories.
‘One of the physios at Exeter said that it basically couldn’t get any worse, no matter what happened to it and it would be OK to wait for surgery after the tour,’ said Nowell. ‘I ruptured both ligaments either side of the thumb. It blew up massively after the semi-final when they tested it. It felt at the time as if it was one of those ones you do all the time in games, but when they did the tests on it the thumb was really very wobbly and I could push it all the way to the back of my hand. ‘To be honest, I kept the injury to myself when it came to England. I would have done anything to tour Australia after missing out on New Zealand with my knee and I’d been told it could wait, unlike the knee. ‘It would have been like missing out on the final at Wimbledon if I’d missed that tour. It was something I felt I had to be involved in and I was desperate to go. I took the call not to make too much of it and it massively paid off. I’d do anything to get on another tour as well and I’d do it again.’ Nowell still wears heavy strapping on his thumb, while the knee injury which has troubled him since his teenage years and needed surgery in 2014 will, he admits, need careful management for the rest of his career.
The quad injury he suffered on the Brighton training camp last October — when Anthony Watson (jaw) and Sam Jones (leg) were also injured — saw Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter criticise England’s backroom staff for overloading Nowell after just one appearance off the bench for his club since the summer.
With his injury woes seemingly behind him and the try-scoring appetite that has seen him score nine times in 18 Tests for England restored, the 23-year-old is hungry for more success with the domestically resurgent Chiefs, who face Ulster in the Champions Cup today, as well as the national side.
‘This is the best I’ve felt in my professional career,’ he said. ‘The guys at Exeter have done a great job looking after me and all I was concentrating on when I was laid off was getting back playing for Exeter. It’s tough watching the boys playing week in and week out and not being involved with the wins and the losses, so it’s been brilliant to be able to contribute again.
‘I’m focusing on Exeter but it’s obviously an exciting time to be involved with England too.
‘There’s a massive amount of confidence in the squad now and that’s come about through winning. Right from winning Eddie’s first game in charge to the work in training is showing out on the field. The boys are working hard and the results are coming. We need to make sure that now we’re on that upward curve we
carry on going.’