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'It’s over to Steve' - Coaches agreed on 'quality' England prospect

By PA
Tom Willis for the Saracens during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Saracens and Bristol Bears at StoneX Stadium on January 4, 2025 in Barnet, England. (Photo by Sam Mellish/Getty Images)

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall believes Tom Willis’ England debut is only a matter of time after the number eight spearheaded a 35-26 victory over Bristol at StoneX Stadium.

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Willis ran in two tries and was imperious throughout, mixing raw power with more subtle touches to finish man of the match as Saracens responded to their record Gallagher Premiership defeat at Bath last weekend with a bonus-point win.

England head coach Steve Borthwick has so far resisted the clamour to pick the 25-year-old, but with the Six Nations opener against Ireland looming on February 1, he has been presented with more compelling reasons to select the tackle-busting number eight.

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“Tom was outstanding and he’s been outstanding all season. I can’t remember a match where he hasn’t been outstanding,” McCall said.

“He just needs to keep on doing what he’s doing. If he keeps putting in performances like this, I think he will get rewarded in the end.

Attack

133
Passes
196
112
Ball Carries
140
283m
Post Contact Metres
258m
10
Line Breaks
8

“He leads by example, by what he does, by getting over the gainline, by breaking tackles and making tackles – all of the things that you want your number eight to be able to do. He’s been a focal point all year.

“He’s very curious and he wants to get better. He wants to be playing for England and he’s willing to do anything that he has to to make that happen. He’s a great guy to have around the team.”

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Willis’ performance also caught the eye of Bristol boss Pat Lam, whose playing career was as a number eight for Samoa, as well as Newcastle and Northampton.

“I was very impressed with Tom and I’ve been impressed with him all season,” Lam said.

“The stats show he’s good, but I can also see that with my eyes. He sets stuff up and he’s been doing that all year. He’s a quality player who is in form.

“It’s over to Steve (for England selection) and there are some good back rows, but certainly Tom is playing consistently well.”

Bouncing back from the 68-10 rout at the Recreation Ground enabled England captain Jamie George to celebrate his 300th appearance for Saracens in style.

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“Jamie showed all of his qualities out there – he was one of the best players on the field,” McCall said.

“He’s played 300 games for us, 97 for England and three for the British and Irish Lions because of his competitive spirit and desire.

“You don’t do it for this long unless you have that and very few people have the stamina to do it for a very long period of time.

“But he’s able to combine that with being a really good bloke off the field. He cares deeply about what he does, about his team-mates and about the club.”

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1 Comment
f
fl 87 days ago

"Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall believes Tom Willis’ England debut is only a matter of time"


Hes already made his debut, actually.

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JW 2 hours ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

It is now 22 years since Michael Lewis published his groundbreaking treatise on winning against the odds

I’ve never bothered looking at it, though I have seen a move with Clint as a scout/producer. I’ve always just figured it was basic stuff for the age of statistics, is that right?

Following the Moneyball credo, the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available

This is actually a great example of what I’m thinking of. This concept has abosolutely nothing to do with Moneyball, it is simple being able to realise how skillsets tie together and which ones are really revelant.


It sounds to me now like “moneyball” was just a necessity, it was like scienctest needing to come up with some random experiment to make all the other world scholars believe that Earth was round. The American sporting scene is very unique, I can totally imagine one of it’s problems is rich old owners not wanting to move with the times and understand how the game has changed. Some sort of mesiah was needed to convert the faithful.


While I’m at this point in the article I have to say, now the NRL is a sport were one would stand up and pay attention to the moneyball phenom. Like baseball, it’s a sport of hundreds of identical repetitions, and very easy to data point out.

the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available and look to get ahead of an unfair game in the areas it has always been strong: predictive intelligence and rugby ‘smarts’

Actually while I’m still here, Opta Expected Points analysis is the one new tool I have found interesting in the age of data. Seen how the random plays out as either likely, or unlikely, in the data’s (and algorithms) has actually married very closely to how I saw a lot of contests pan out.


Engaging return article Nick. I wonder, how much of money ball is about strategy as apposed to picks, those young fella’s got ahead originally because they were picking players that played their way right? Often all you here about is in regards to players, quick phase ruck ball, one out or straight up, would be were I’d imagine the best gains are going to be for a data driven leap using an AI model of how to structure your phases. Then moving to tactically for each opposition.

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