Jack Willis has far from empty thoughts after England debut at Twickenham

It was far from the greatest show; yes, Eddie Jones’s side had just won 40-0 so in many ways they must have been great.

However, it was against Georgia, a team who still have many players playing semi-professional club rugby, and took place in front of an empty Twickenham Stadium: if it was even a show it was played out to no-one. Standing and sitting room aplenty.

In wet, dank conditions, where you could hear the players crashing into each other as if you were standing on the sidelines at Pocklington or Driffield rather than the home of the 2003 world champions, it was just another brutal reminder of Covid.

However, there was a reason for that aforementioned tune from The Greatest Showman.

In the absence of the usual 82,000 fans, England players had each selected songs to be played at times before, during and after this Autumn Nations Cup opener to, in the words of the RFU, reflect “the diversity of our sport and society”.

It was a nice touch. Moreover, try telling Jack Willis this game was not great.

The quality Wasps flanker, who turns 24 on Christmas Eve, made his Test debut on Saturday and scored within 15 minutes.

The Premiership’s recently-anointed player of the year was still wearing his cap when chatting on a Zoom call with the assembled press almost two hours after the final whistle.

Having forced his way over from close range, ordinarily on such a heightened occasion a player would be looking towards the stands to spot loved ones to share the gilded moment.

Obviously, Willis could not experience that but he insisted: “It doesn’t make the moment or the occasion any less special. It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a young lad; it was an incredible feeling to finally get here.

“I loved every second of it. It was incredible to get out there and a massive honour. It was a very strange experience not having family and friends there.

“But it has given me an extra motivation to work hard enough to hopefully get another opportunity one day and have them here with me.”

In fairness, Willis – who would likely have made his England debut two years ago if not for a serious knee injury – already has experience of playing at an empty Twickenham, having agonisingly lost out to Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership final last month.

“That was a tough few days. But the Wasps lads fortunate enough to be involved in this England group I think we had to shift our mindset pretty quickly onto the job at hand.

“I’ve not really had that on my mind and we got the job done. It’s been a whirlwind couple of years with the injuries and stuff. I wasn’t really thinking about that the last few days. It was just excitement, nerves, all sorts of emotions really.

“As it got closer, it was just pure excitement; I couldn’t wait to get out there and get stuck in. This is an incredible group to be part of with lots of hard-working lads who really want to put a shift in and get better every single day.”

Given the embarrassment of riches for England at openside –regular No7 Tom Curry started on the bench but Sam Underhill and Lewis Ludlam are others in the reckoning – Willis knows he will have to improve further.

It will be interesting to see if Jones selects him for Saturday’s game against Ireland or reverts to the more experienced Curry.

England made a point of quickly making their mark on Georgia’s main asset – their scrum – and once that was achieved in a competitive opening quarter, there were no worries of another shock like Argentina’s maiden win over the All Blacks earlier in the day.

Jamie George became the first England hooker to score a hat-trick of tries, all coming in identical style after Charlie Ewels claimed line-out ball and the British Lion came up on the end of the driving maul.

Like Willis, Bristol centre Max Malins debuted and the only real negative was the sight of Jonathan Joseph, the Bath centre playing on the wing here, being helped off with a back spasm having elegantly broken through to set up Elliot Daly’s 39th-minute try.

The coach is “cautiously optimistic” he will be fit to face Ireland. Dan Robson sniped over for their final try, Owen Farrell booting 10 points.

England: Daly; Joseph (Marchant 39), Lawrence (Malins 62), Slade, May; Farrell, Youngs (Robson 62); Genge (M Vunipola 48), George (Dunn 64), Stuart (Sinckler 48), Ewels (Curry 64), Launchbury, Itoje, Willis (Earl 47), B Vunipola.

Georgia: Khmaladze; Tabutsadze, Kveseladze, Sharikadze, Svanidze (Todua 79); Abzhandadze, Aprasidze (Lobzhanidze 66); Nariashvili (Gogichashvili 47), Mamukashvili (Bregvadze 47), Gigashvili, Jaiani, Kerdikoshvili (Javakhia 65), Saginadze, Tkhilaishvili (Jalagonia 73), Gorgadze (Giorgadze 60).

Referee: N Owens (Wales).

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click HERE to subscribe.