May delighted to be up to speed on international stage

England's Jonny May during the QBE International at Twickenham, London.

‘Go Jonny Go’ or ‘All Blacks scream May Day,’ were two offerings after Jonny May had scored one blistering try and almost notched another as England ran roughshod over New Zealand’s reputation.

It all quickly turned sour, as we now know, and those headlines have been shelved for another day.

But it never hurts to acknowledge a positive and the way May danced through New Zealand’s cover, bursting past Conrad Smith and dancing round the outside of Israel Dagg – leaving one of the finest full-backs in world rugby in his wake – was a sight to behold.

“I’ve only seen bits of the try since,” said the 24-year-old, who was scoring his first try on his eighth cap.

“It’s funny when you’re playing you see yourself on the big screen and think ‘wow, that was me’.

“I just remember getting the ball and thinking run as fast as I could. Instinct takes over at that speed.

“I was just happy to dot the ball down because I feel that’s been a long time in coming.

“It’s almost a demon off my back to get that first try, and, hopefully, I’ve got more to come.”

Gloucester fans have known all about May’s speed for a while.

But if he had not chosen rugby, May could have pursued a career in sprinting.

Two years ago,he was clocked at running the 100m in 10.7 seconds.

“I’m actually faster than I was two years ago but because of summer tours and niggles, I haven’t tested myself since,” he said. “I’m faster now because my speed is something I work on probably the hardest because that’s my point of difference.

“It’s important to improve your strengths and back it up with a solid all-round game. But at international level you need a unique selling point about you.”

But after a chastening defeat, May continued: “Game management-wise we’ve got to look at ourselves because we didn’t do enough.

“The opposition played all the rugby, got ahead, the rain started to fall, we got 10 points down and the game was gone really.

“When we had chances to get out of our half and impose our game on them we missed it.

“They just managed to find an extra five per cent. We need to learn from that because it’s happened so many times now.”