The reaction to 'rangy' Ollie Chessum, the latest new England cap
There were just 15 minutes remaining at Stadio Olimpico last Sunday when Ollie Chessum entered the Guinness Six Nations arena to replace skipper Tom Curry and make his England debut at just the age of 21 – quite the achievement for someone who has played just 16 times (eight as a starter) in the Gallagher Premiership for Leicester.
It was December when Tigers boss Steve Borthwick explained what he especially liked about the emerging 6ft 7in, 118kg forward. “A fantastic character who has worked really hard at his game. It hasn’t been a straight path for him. He has gone a different way. Played at Nottingham the year before last and shone there as a young man and then he has come in and worked hard to improve himself physically.
“His attitude to work has always been excellent but his desire and focus to improve have been really impressive and you saw that on the pitch… he has shown a huge amount of perseverance. You talk about grasping opportunities, he is one that every time you give him an opportunity he jumps at it.”
Eight weeks later it was the turn of England boss Eddie Jones to sing the praises of Chessum. On Friday, after naming the Test rookie as the No19 for the clash away to Italy, the head coach suggested by way of introduction: “He is a workhorse. He is a traditional six-stroke-four hard worker, has good basics, likes doing the tough stuff.”
Forty-eight hours later, with Chessum now a capped international player with England following his cameo off the bench in Rome, Jones reckoned: “A lovely hard-working kid. We have been looking for that tall, rangy four who can play six or six who can play four in the mould of a Courtney Lawes.
A proud day for Ollie and everyone involved in his rugby journey 🙌#ITAvENG pic.twitter.com/oHQnn2w9uB
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 13, 2022
“He is not to that level now but we feel he can develop into that important player for us that can fill two sports. To come in and not look out of place, for a guy that I don’t know how many Premiership games he has started, I am sure it is under ten it is a fantastic achievement.”
Asked was there a preference for Chessum to become a six or a four in the long-term, Jones added: “It doesn’t matter, we want someone who can play four or six. Having said that, I thought Maro was absolutely outstanding at six. It really suited his game and him and Curry together were a good combination.”
Leicester were understandably chuffed that Chessum had become the latest player from their club to become a capped England forward. Freddie Burns, their man of the match in last Friday’s derby win over Northampton, summed up the mood when appearing on the RugbyPass Fanzone show with Jim Hamilton following the weekend’s action in round two of the Six Nations.
“Ollie getting his first cap is amazing. Everyone at Leicester is buzzing for him because you know what it is like Jim, you played there. You played in the position back row, second row where you don’t get the limelight. It’s not about necessarily scoring tries or being the poster boy is it, you are doing the nitty-gritty stuff that goes unseen.
“Ollie for us this year has really surprised me along with a few of the other youngsters at Tigers. I know his mum. She is always at the games supporting. His younger brother is also at the club as well. Just for his whole family, I’m made up that he has got his England debut,” said Burns.
Hamilton added: “First touch of the ball was a lineout steal, second touch of the ball was nearly a lineout steal. His agent is my agent so I texted him, he was out in Italy watching Ollie making his debut in Rome and I said he made a real big contribution and it was good to see a young lad from my home club Leicester come on and do really well.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 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 commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments