Jack Willis

Jack Willis is English rugby’s great what-if turned French rugby’s great certainty — a jackal specialist who lost his club to financial collapse, rebuilt his career at Toulouse, and became so good in exile that England’s eligibility rules, which bar overseas-based players, turned every one of his European performances into a selection debate London could not ignore.

The breakdown is his kingdom. Willis wins turnovers at a rate that led the Premiership in his Wasps years and has since survived the step up to the sharpest competition in Europe; his low, locked-on jackal position is genuinely difficult to referee against and nearly impossible to shift legally. At Toulouse — where he has stacked Top 14 and Champions Cup honours alongside the best squad in club rugby — he added layers France demands: tighter carrying, cleaner maul work, the handling to live in Toulouse’s offload game.

The Wasps collapse of 2022 is the hinge of his story. Made redundant mid-season with the rest of the squad, he took a Toulouse lifeline that was meant to be short-term cover and instead became a foundation player, family settled, French fluent, a favourite of the Ernest-Wallon crowd. He has spoken with unusual honesty about choosing stability and elite standards over chasing caps.

England’s fifth-place 2026 Six Nations, with the back row under scrutiny, made the Willis question louder again: the best English openside plays four hundred miles from Twickenham and cannot be picked. Until policy or club changes, he remains the finest England player England refuse to select.