Jack Steven Willis (born 24 December 1996) is an English professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who plays as a flanker for

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

club

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

and the England national team.

Club career

Willis played junior rugby for

Reading Abbey R.F.C. Reading Abbey R.F.C is an English Rugby Union club. Although the club is named after, and historically connected with, the Berkshire town of Reading, it is now located between Reading and Peppard and just over the boundary into the county of Ox ...

before joining the

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...

Senior Academy in 2015. In November 2016 he made his first senior start for Wasps in an

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

game against

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks is a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Originally founded in 1861 as Sale Football Club, now a distinct amateur club, they adopted the n ...

. Later that month he made his Premiership debut against the same opponent. After an exceptional 2019/2020 season in the

Gallagher Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

Willis became the recipient of multiple awards, including: The "players' player of the year" award, the Premiership "Player of the Season" award, and the "Discovery of the Season" award. Wasps entered administration on 17 October 2022 and Willis was made redundant along with all other players and coaching staff. On 24 November, he joined France's most-successful club

in the

competition with immediate effect.

International career

Willis was a member of the England under-20 team that hosted the

2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the ninth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in England by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations took part in the tournamen ...

and came off the bench as England defeated

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the final. In 2018 he was named in the England senior squad for their tour to South Africa. A knee injury sustained in the Premiership semi-final defeat against

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

ruled him out of the tour. A week after finishing as a runner up in the 2019/20 premiership final, Willis was included in Eddie Jones' England side for the final Six Nations match against Italy Willis made his debut on 14 November 2020 against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

in the

Autumn Nations Cup The Autumn Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held in November and December 2020 in place of the usual Autumn internationals series typically held in the same period each year, as many teams were avoiding extended travel due to the COVID- ...

, and opened the scoring with a debut try in the 15th minute as England won 40-0.

Career statistics

List of international tries

References

External links

*
Stade Toulousain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Jack 1996 births Living people England international rugby union players English rugby union players Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Reading, Berkshire Wasps RFC players Stade Toulousain players 2023 Rugby World Cup players