'That got my monkey out': The moment Jonny May lost it with Borthwick
Jonny May remains one of the nicest guys in rugby. Not because he said a bright and breezy ‘Hello, how are you?” when he walked past RugbyPass after Monday training in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage.
It’s because he somehow managed to control his emotions on July 31 at Pennyhill when England boss Steve Borthwick bluntly told him he wouldn’t be playing against Wales that coming weekend in Cardiff…. and neither would he be picked in the 33 for Rugby World Cup.
He stomped off incredulously – “That got my monkey out, I will be honest” – battling with the grave news he had just received, gave himself 10 minutes in the gym to rationalise what had just happened and then had the foresight to seek out another chat with Borthwick which, in the long-run, became a Test career game-changer.
May could have understandably sworn and shouted at the head coach to assuage his pain at being left out and, as a consequence, harmed his chances of ever getting another call. After all, he had just given up his entire summer to train with England, starting on June 12 just two weeks after his first child, son Jackson, was born.
But the vexed winger instead managed to ask the right question of Borthwick, whose intriguing answer was enough to convince May to stay in the loop even though he was surplus to World Cup requirements.
Three weeks later he learned that was in the side to start the final Summer Nations Series outing versus Fiji and the following day, August 27, it was officially confirmed he would replace the injured Anthony Watson in the squad travelling to France 2023.
Fair play to May for his patience. Kudos too for the merry way he regaled his Borthwick rejection story. “The truth is on the Monday before Wales [July 31] he spoke to me and said, ‘As it currently stands, you are not playing at the weekend and you are not in the 33’.
“That got my monkey out, I will be honest, because I was like, ‘Well, what the hell am I doing here this week then?’ I felt like that. In that moment I was like, ‘I’m not going and I’m not playing at the weekend, why the hell am I here?’
“So I went to the gym for 10 minutes and then I stomped back to him and said I needed another chat and I said, ‘I’m just running this by you but maybe I don’t want to be here this week, why am I here? And I have got my son at home’.
“And he said he didn’t want me to go home because I’m next in and it doesn’t look good if you quit now and then you have to be called back in so I was like, ‘Yeah, fair enough, that’s a good point’. I have done this much time now, just calm down and get on with it. But yeah, that was my initial response with it.
“I was disappointed because I had expressed in week one (of training in June) that I wanted a game and an opportunity to play and it looked like I wasn’t going to get that, and I felt like I had worked hard and had played well and trained well and I really wanted it,” May continued.
“There is no right or wrong or easy way to tell somebody they are not in the team and I understand that from Steve’s part, but then to go away from that, I reacted angrily but rationally as well. I didn’t scream and swear at him. I was like, ‘What do you think about this because what am I doing here this week?’
“But I’m glad I stayed and then the opportunity came to stay and train and by then I had calmed down and I looked bigger picture. I was, ‘Right, I have been eight weeks or whatever away from home, what is the harm in three more to try and get a game?’ Hang on in there and then I would have felt better if I hadn’t (travelled for World Cup) knowing that I had given it every possible chance.”
Borthwick’s public persona is that of a tricky customer but May found his dealings with him over the summer to be that of a straight shooter, not a ducker and diver. “Definitely challenging, roller coaster, that would sum it up really.
“Just put a lot of hard work in. I felt like I had trained well and then competed well and then it looked like even though I missed out I wasn’t even going to get an opportunity to play. That was probably my biggest regret.
“I really wanted a game. If I got a game and then got told you’re not going, I could have handled that a lot better. So that is what made it particularly difficult for me.
“But on the flip side of it, Steve was available to talk and we must have had four or five intense but honest, open conversations whereby when he rang me on the Sunday to say I’m not in, I was in a better place to accept it because I had said everything I had needed to say if that makes sense.
“But then the opportunity to stay in and keep training, I wanted to do that because again I wanted a game so I was thinking, ‘Hang on, let’s look at this fixture sheet. We have just played Wales, we have Wales again, we have Ireland, boys may be a bit banged up’.
BREAKING: England skipper Owen Farrell has spoken with the media in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage for the first time since his four-game ban following an August 12 red card – with Liam Heagney ? #EnglandRugby #ENGvARG #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/HBk7PT30fB
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 4, 2023
“I was thinking potential future scenarios; I thought maybe he might not want to play all his starters against Fiji and I thought just hand around three more weeks to get a game.
“I reset my goals, I really wanted one more game even though I had accepted I wasn’t going to go to a World Cup and I said I don’t want to wish injury upon anybody, so to support the boys and get a game, that was then my goal. But then unfortunately with what happened to Anthony, all of a sudden, I got a game and now I am here.
“It was pretty dark but what helped was those conversations that I had with Steve, but then things turned around. Obviously gutted for Anthony and it’s a cruel game. It can be cruel at times but you learn that as you get older.
“Cruel in terms of two things, you can not get picked and you can get hurt and that will probably happen to everybody at some stage along their career.”
May’s late inclusion means he will be lacking personal support in the stands if he is picked for Marseille this Saturday. “It’s all very last minute with my situation particularly. The ticket situation is a bit of a nightmare.
“We had these forms, ‘order your tickets now’ at the beginning of last week without knowing if you are playing or not, so pretty tricky to make plans regarding that and they are not cheap either.
“Two complementary and then up to order eight but that is difficult, you can’t say I am playing this game. You haven’t the luxury of saying I am playing this game now. We don’t even know who is playing on Saturday yet, so that is a bit tricky.
“Marseille is a bit of a nightmare to get to, everybody has given up on that one. But we are just playing it by ear and we have a family week after Chile. It’s a plan in progress still.”
May’s return to the England XV versus Fiji resulted in him needing just nine minutes to end the backline try-scoring famine that stretched back to the 75th-minute in Cardiff last February when Ollie Lawrence scored. That was five full games and a bit on either side without an England back scoring a try.
“Attack is probably the hardest thing to coach,” reckoned May. “It probably takes the longest to get going. Defence can be a quick fix with attitude. Attack is a hard thing to coach.
“I experienced that at Gloucester last season, it can be a hard thing to coach and certainly probably with the team where Eddie (Jones) came undone post (2019) World Cup was really trying to get an attack going which for whatever reason we couldn’t.
“That was on all of us and when you are pursuing something else, you are spinning lots of plates with rugby and before you know it a couple of things you are not giving attention to can drop off as well. That was probably the case.
“We are still trying to get our attack going, we did score a few good tries against Fiji with the backs. We have the intent to move the ball, but we are still making too many errors. But it is improving, from internally we feel it growing and feel it improving and the messages from the coaches is that we want to be a smart team that attacks space whatever means that be.
“We are still a new team with combinations coming together; a week just in we’re up against time. We are up against time but all it takes is one game to click and then we’ll be off and that is the feeling we have got.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Danny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig 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!
5 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 …
35 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to comments