Richard Wigglesworth had been reasonably pleased with his international debut on Sunday, when he played the last 20 minutes of England’s 23-19 victory over Italy in Rome. Then he boarded the team bus and his day took a turn for the worse, as he was subjected to the debutant’s initiation ceremony of performing a song in front of his teammates.
“I was the only debutant, which made it particularly bad,” he said. “The week before, there had been three of them, but I was all on my own. I did She’s Electric by Oasis, but I shouted it rather than sung it. It didn’t go down too well. Mike Ford [the assistant coach] said it was the worst he’d ever heard.” Mercifully, for his own career prospects, his performance on the field at the Stadio Flaminio had not been so discordant. While England were again looking shaky in the closing stages, the Sale Sharks scrum half came off the bench and played with a quiet assurance.
At 24, he is nine years younger than Andy Gomarsall, the incumbent No 9. A bright performance tomorrow night for Sale against Leeds Carnegie would strengthen his case to start for England against France in nine days’ time, especially as Gomarsall will not play for Harlequins against Worcester on Saturday because of a back spasm.
Wigglesworth has an impressive all-round set of scrum-half skills, a neat pass and a left foot so sweet that he has played a handful of games for Sale at fly half. Few players in the British game are adept at playing in both half-back positions. This is not the case in France, where players such as Fr?d?ric Michalak are comfortable in either role, which explains in part why Wigglesworth was chosen as his club’s emergency No 10 by Philippe Saint-Andre, the Sale director of rugby and former captain of France.
“It’s definitely a French thing,” Wigglesworth said. “French teams have often had a 9 and 10 who could play left and right. It’s nice that Philippe still thinks I’m a good enough footballer to play at fly half.” Wigglesworth’s rise to prominence this season has been helped by the knee injury that has sidelined Harry Ellis since May. Marcelo Loffreda, the Leicester head coach, confirmed yesterday that Ellis is still at least three weeks away from returning to the first team, so he is certain to miss the rest of the RBS Six Nations Championship.
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Martin Corry, the Leicester captain, is on the verge of agreeing a new one-year deal with the club to cover next season, which will be the last of his career.