Jack Walker's journey from North Ribblesdale and Leeds Carnegie to Steve Borthwick's England

For the winning of what will be a third England cap in the Six Nations encounter with France on Saturday afternoon for the 26-year-old from Steeton in West Yorkshire will come as no surprise to old team-mates and coaches – even if the position he plays was not what he started out as.

"We played him in the back row," says Iain Harris, Walker’s coach at North Ribblesdale from Under-11s up to Under-16s.

"He was that good we played him a year group up. Jack was just quality, great hands, understood the game, a good tackler and a very, very good team player. I couldn’t speak more highly of the individual.

"He was naturally gifted and eager to learn. Sometimes when you talk to kids about timings and angles of run, you may as well be talking a foreign language. With Jack he picked it up naturally. I could have played him as a centre.”

By the time he signed his first professional contract with Leeds Carnegie aged 16, Walker was surprising his team-mates with his versatility.

“He was a front-row forward but didn’t move or play like it," explains Leeds team-mate Oli Goss.

"He had skills I would have killed for. Every training session Jack played fly-half, he was more than capable.

“He played rugby like a centre. He was always tough enough, his ears nearly fell off because he refused to wear a scrum cap.”

What both Harris and Goss agree on is Walker’s personality.

He had an older brother who played for Carnegie in Chris, and they were united in grief during their teens when their father died.

Through that tragedy, the values instilled in the brothers never wavered.

"They were well brought up boys, they were extremely down to earth and there was no arrogance in them whatsoever," says Goss, who also played for Doncaster Knights.

"They just loved playing rugby, loved playing free, offloading, they were so skillful. Neither of them looked like rugby players.

"Jack just wanted to play and he always had a big smile on his face. He could do that as a kid whilst being extremely good at what he was doing.

"He was the sort of character that didn’t take it too seriously, at least outwardly. He wasn’t a super keeno like me. It all came very easy to him. I just remember him being a nice lad.”

Harris continues: "In five or six years I was involved with him I only had to give him one bollocking. He was a just a pleasure of a lad.

“There was no arrogance about him. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of years and then bumped into him recently on Settle golf course. He’s still a lovely lad.

"He’s moved onto bigger and better things in terms of his rugby but he’s still pals with lads he played with when he was 13, 14.”

His stint at Leeds Carnegie was shortlived but was record-breaking, Jack Walker captaining the then Championship side aged 18 years, 256 days.

"He was the best player on the pitch, naturally charismatic," says Goss of why he was captaining a men’s senior team at such a young age.

“Not necessarily a talker but did everything right and always said the right things at the right time.”

Walker had captaincy experience from his time at North Ribblesdale.

"He led by endeavour," says Harris. "One thing that stood him out was his ability to understand the game. Lots of people are physically able, but Jack could anticipate things, he naturally did the right thing at the right time. It would be rare that you saw him do something fundamentally stupid, he had an inherent understanding of the game."

If there is any surprise to the two of them, it is that it took Walker until he was in his mid-twenties to earn England recognition, having moved from Carnegie to Bath in 2016, and then onto Harlequins two years ago.

He was called up to the England squad by Eddie Jones last summer, and earned his first cap under Steve Borthwick as a late replacement for Eddie George against Italy last month.

"Twenty-six is not that old for a front row," observes Goss. “He’s certainly earned his stripes and learned from a lot of good people.

"It’s probably as a result of the position he plays, they mature a lot later physically.

"At age 18 he wasn’t that big, now he’s enormous. He’s added power to that tremendous skillset.”

Yorkshire has not had much to shout about from a mens’ rugby union perspective in recent years, with no Premiership presence for a decade, and a pathway to England honours dwindling in representatives.

It is why the people of North Ribblesdale and the old Leeds Carnegie and the academy structure they put in place will watch with great fondness the international path of one of their own, one who is clearly so well regarded.

"Jack receiving international honours is brilliant for North Ribblesdale, absolutely brilliant,” says Harris.

How tragedy helped shape Walker

​Jack Walker lost his dad Johnny during his development in the junior systems of Yorkshire’s rugby pathway.

Johnny had played for North Ribblesdale, and died aged 44.

That tragedy is something Jack now uses as motivation, believes John Fletcher, who worked with Walker at Leeds Carengie academy and coached him in the England Under-18s set-up.

"His dad had a huge influence on Jack,” says Fletcher, who agrees with Oli Goss and Iain Harris about the new England hooker’s attitude to learning the game back in the day.

"His Dad and Mum followed him everywhere. It was such an upsetting time when it happened but he has emerged from it with great credit.”