There have been times over the past 18 months when you would have forgiven Tom Willis for wondering just why he swapped Bordeaux for Barnet. Les Girondins lead the Top 14 in France, have swept all before them in the Champions Cup and play with a swagger that only Toulouse can rival. Saracens, meanwhile, offered Willis a route towards international recognition but until this month he has found himself on the outside looking in.
Moreover, there is not much precedent for English exiles across the Channel returning to make a successful crack at the international stage. Willis had only to look at his fellow No 8 Zach Mercer, who helped Montpellier secure a Top 14 title and won a player of the year award in his two seasons only to return to England and find himself cut from the 2023 World Cup. He has not been seen in Steve Borthwick’s squad again.
Truth be told, most don’t even try. Some, such as Courtney Lawes, are in the twilight of their careers while others, such as Tom’s brother, Jack, are revelling in French rugby, improving as players, and seeing the absence of international recognition as a small price to pay.
Willis, however, always had an itch to scratch. At the end of his Bordeaux stint and before joining Saracens, he won his only cap to date off the bench in the 2023 World Cup warm-up defeat by Wales in Cardiff that was memorable only because Borthwick finalised his squad the following day, and you suspect a few of his charges played themselves out of it.
Willis, 26, was among those cut and after a difficult first season with Saracens – interrupted by knee surgery – Bordeaux must have felt a million miles away. Willis knuckled down and it is no exaggeration to say he has been the most consistently excellent performer in the Premiership this term. At last, after missing out on the autumn squad, he is poised for a long-awaited second cap, probably from the bench, against Ireland on Saturday.
“For me I felt like I had not had a proper crack at playing for England and that is really what I wanted to do,” Willis says. “My brother is two years older and had 10 or 15 caps and I think he had a different decision to make. I wanted to come back to England, have a proper crack at it, and throw myself into it and see where it led me.”
Watching Willis’s performance in Saracens’ 35-26 victory against Bristol in which he scored two tries – including a long-range finish down the wing – it seemed certain he would be included in Borthwick’s Six Nations squad 10 days later. In reality, however, Borthwick could no longer overlook him after a stunning performance against the Bulls, who themselves fielded a monstrous back-row trio, in December. Afterwards the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, revealed how Borthwick had wanted to see whether Willis could handle himself against elite Champions Cup opposition and there was a resounding answer.
For he has the ability to make a dent with his ball-carrying that Borthwick’s side sorely lacked in the autumn – a skill he honed during his stint in Bordeaux, having been forced to relocate following Wasps’ demise. “I had to develop my ball-carrying,” Willis says.
“It was quite simple how I’d approach a game at Wasps, I was well looked after, came through the academy. In France no one owed me anything, I was just out there and had hold of it myself. In the first couple of games I got banged by a couple of Pacific Islanders, playing Perpignan away. I had to look at how I approached my ball carry, picking better lines and just being smart around that. That carried over, coming back to England.
“The first couple of months were pretty isolating. I’d never lived on my own, my missus joined me a couple of months later but it was a bit of a shock to the system. Not knowing the language was pretty draining but it almost made the game feel simpler. I didn’t get stressed and just focused on bringing energy and physicality.
“The biggest thing [with England] is what they want you to do is get what you are best at and make it even better. So they want me to focus on my ball-carrying, and keep developing that against tough defences. You obviously have some really tough defences in Europe and how you can keep making an impact there.”
The extended Willis family will be paying close attention on Saturday – not least because Tom’s grandfather, Colin, is from Northern Ireland and played for Reading Abbey RFC, just as Tom, Jack and their father did. So, what advice has Jack given his younger brother?
“Don’t change what you’re bringing outside of it, just be yourself on and off the pitch,” Willis says. “Throw yourself into it, think about what got you here in the first place and thrive on that. There is that chat that goes around [expectation] and that always comes out when you’re talking about brothers. It’s not something I’ve dwelled on.
“I go to him for advice quite a lot. He’s a very intelligent player who has kicked on massively with Toulouse. I wouldn’t say I’ve thought too much about following what he did, but more doing the best I can in the environments I’m in.”
