'Brutal process': Dallaglio's invaluable advice for Jack Willis
Rehabilitating England back-rower Jack Willis has sought the advice of Wasps legend Lawrence Dallaglio while on the comeback trail following his latest ACL injury. Willis was left stricken when crocodile rolled during last February’s Guinness Six Nations match versus Italy at Twickenham and six months into his rehab, he has picked the brain of ex-England skipper Dallaglio who would have suffered the same type of injury during the prime of his career.
The meeting, which took place in a changing room at the now named Coventry Building Society Arena, featured in the latest episode of Willis’ social media mini-documentary series on his road back to full health after he was stretchered off in London earlier this year with an injury likely to keep him sidelined until mid-winter at the earliest.
The 24-year-old Willis was making just his third appearance for England when he was injured and he was all ears at the Wasps ground in Coventry when legendary club skipper Dallaglio, the 49-year-old veteran of 85 England caps and three more Tests with the 1997 Lions, paid him a visit to talk about their respective fights back from ACL injuries.
“Unfortunately I did have a potentially career-threatening injury in 2001, 20 years ago. Same injury as you had. ACL snapped,” said Wasps legend Dallaglio to Willis in episode five of The Rebuild 2.0. “I never grew up thinking I am going to be a professional rugby player. I grew up thinking I am going to work and play rugby and I did work and then professional rugby came along so I gave rugby a go. I thought it would be quite good fun to see where it ends up and I didn’t go back to work for another 20 years.”
Dallaglio explained how his ACL injury created invaluable time to reflect on his life and he returned to rugby re-energised and appreciating his job even more. “Not that you ever want one but sometimes you need an injury just to hit the pause button and go where is my career going, where is my life going, what am I doing on the pitch?
It's four and a half weeks since Jack Willis was seriously injured by a crocodile roll while playing for England and fellow poacher Sam Underhill has now had his say… #SixNations #IREvENGhttps://t.co/fNvnxFyB30
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 17, 2021
“I would always say to people if your life is rugby then when you haven’t got rugby you are going to have some serious issues going on in your life… your friends never get to be your friends when you are a rugby player because the only time they see you is when they come and watch you and even then they can’t chat to you because everyone else wants to chat to you. So see your friends, see your family, get stuck into two or three projects outside rugby that enrich your life and give you a distraction away from the game.
“As you say, when you are in the rehab you’re in rehab. All I know is it’s a brutal process. I found it really tough. Some of the stuff, learning to run again, walking again, learning to do all the things again that you just take for granted. It makes you a much stronger player and you really appreciate the game more when you come back from that.”
Willis, who recently had the sauna room at the new Wasps training group named after him, added: “It was important to have a chat with guys like yourself about the experience you have been through with a fantastic career but also suffering a few injuries during that time. I wanted to get your thoughts as an injured athlete and how you dealt with that time. It was great to pick your brains. I really appreciate it.
“It’s interesting hearing someone else’s experience and going through it in a different sort of era of rugby as well and realising you actually go through exactly the same thing. For me, it has been invaluable to pick up a few bits of advice that he said. It was great to catch up.”
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Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments