Tom Willis has been likened to All Blacks legend Kieran Read and told he is an England captain of the future and international number eight for the here and now.
The glowing assessment comes from Lawrence Dallaglio, who won a World Cup in that same England shirt and is clear that the Saracens star must be given his first Test start in Ireland on February 1.
“Tom has been producing not just good performances,” says Dallaglio. “He’s the best forward in England at the moment by some distance.
Likened to Kieran Read
“He’s top of pretty much every metric and measurement – defenders beaten, metres made, post contact metres – and defensively he put in a huge shift against Bristol last weekend.
“Most importantly, he’s doing things that affect the outcome of the game. He’s got a bit of the old Kieran Read‘s about him if I’m honest.”
Read is one of the greatest number eights to play the game. A two-time World Cup winner and national captain who represented New Zealand 127 times between 2008-19. Compliments don’t come any bigger than that.
Willis has kept his head down since his jaw-dropping display against the Bears, keen to let his rugby speak for him ahead of Steve Borthwick’s squad announcement on Tuesday.
The breadth of that performance – two tries, three turnovers, 23 tackles – has been the talk of rugby all week and led Dallaglio to wax lyrical about the 25-year old.
“I see him not only as the England number eight to start the Six Nations, but captain of the team eventually,” he says. “And the sooner the better, in my opinion.
“You could be bold and brave and give him the captaincy now. But that would probably be a bit too bold for Steve. Let’s be honest, Jamie George was given it four years later than he should have been.”
Dallaglio knows the Willis family well from their time at Wasps before the two-time European champions fell into administration and both Tom and older brother Jack briefly found themselves out of work.
Since then Jack has won the Champions Cup and Top 14 with Toulouse, whom he recently captained, while Tom is lighting up the Premiership following a short spell in Bordeaux.
“Even at Wasps you could tell Tom and his brother were always going to play for England,” adds Dallaglio, who is part of the Premier Sports team broadcasting exclusively round three of the Investec Champions Cup across this weekend.
“I never doubted it for one second. You see certain players and you just know they’ve got that in their DNA.
“Jack’s progress has been incredible. What happened at Wasps, two serious knee injuries, moving abroad… yet look at him now. He’s captaining Toulouse! He’s gone from fringe squad player – ‘we’ll give you a chance’ – to Toulouse quickly realising they have an absolute gem there.
“The tragedy is that under the current rules he can’t play for England. Let’s hope by the time his contract is up English rugby is finally in the sort of economic state that someone can pick him up.
“It might be Saracens, you never know, he might go and join his brother for a season in the build-up to the [2027] World Cup.”
Ben Earl is the current England number eight and already a team mate of Tom Willis at Saracens, who go to Munster in the Champions Cup on Saturday. Borthwick must decide whether one or both return to Ireland for the opening round of the Six Nations in three weeks.
“England have incredible talent in the back-row, there’s no doubt about that and that’s nothing new,” Dallaglio continues.
“Ben is a superb player who’s brought out the best in himself, really, at Saracens. But, you know, we’ve had Zach Mercer, who’s never quite been able to fit the bill. We’ve had Alex Dombrandt, who is in and out. England need to pick a number eight at number eight.
“As I say, there’s no doubt Ben is a wonderful player but, given the choice, [Saracens director of rugby] Mark McCall picks Tom at eight, and Ben when they want to peel off the back of the scrum quite quickly. With all due respect, if Ben was an international number eight he’d play there every week for Saracens.
“England have got great options and there’s no reason you can’t swap those players in and out like Saracens do. But consistency of selection is key.”
Dallaglio’s fervent hope is that England can turn the narrow defeats of the autumn into wins in spring time. The heat is on Borthwick but former England captain Dallaglio says the onus is also on the players.
“There were some incredible club games last weekend so please, nobody say England don’t have the players to play a different game of rugby, because we do. It’s up to them as a group to work out how to get the best out of themselves,” he said.