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You see the line. You drive hard on your legs, you turn, you turn and you’re on the other side. A crowd of 80,000 screams. The dream debut.
After a first cap that was delayed two years for Jack Willis, so it should have been.
But of course we are in 2020 and you have to take the victories where you can.
It may have been a strange atmosphere in an empty Twickenham, but after the coronavirus kept English rugby out of its home for eight months, the players simply rejoiced at the opportunity to complete a tournament. ruthless crushing of six Georgia attempts.
Since teams from the southern hemisphere were unable to travel north in November as they normally do, the Fall Nations Cup was born to keep international rugby alive.
After the Six Nations delivered a mediocre final super Saturday two weeks earlier, there were hopes that this one-of-a-kind tournament in the strangest of years could provide rugby exciting enough to distract fans from current world events.
But an unusual tone was set early in England’s first group match.
Players experienced a quiet walk from the bus to the locker room instead of the usual South West London welcome.
The queues for bars and groups of older adults who chanted jovially in costumes were replaced by corridors of Twickenham that took on an eerie silence.
As if to deliberately make things weirder, Georgia was the team wearing the usual white for England, while the hosts opted for blue.
After a minute’s silence to score Rugby Against Racism, the teams disbanded in an awkward and anticlimactic way, feeling the absence of the home crowd to propel them into kickoff.
The rain that had been raining all day briefly stopped for the first half, but a gray sky was looming and damage to any prospect of running rugby had already been done on the slippery Twickenham field.
Initially, the Georgians brought some life to the hollow stadium, creating an atmosphere of their own.
Enjoying a first trip to the home of rugby, the visiting submarines made strong will on their side while heroically holding England at bay.
But finally Willis had his moment. Having impressed week after week with Wasps in the Premiership last season, England head coach Eddie Jones could no longer stubbornly ignore calls to give the 23-year-old a first cap.
Willis was scheduled to tour South Africa with England in 2018, but ultimately missed out due to a knee injury.
And the wing insisted that amateur or non-amateur, scoring at Twickenham on his debut was something he had dreamed of since “he was a youngster.”
Hooker Jamie George also deserved to hear the adoration of hungry rugby fans when he completed a hat-trick.
In a year in which many have learned to expect the unexpected and adapt accordingly, George took advantage of his hat-trick, the first scored by an England hooker, at full speed.
The hosts may have been playing against level two opponents, but three attempts in a Test don’t happen as often.
However, the 30-year-old downplayed his feat and praised most of the praise for his fellow forwards given that all of his scores came from mauls.
“It is quite an embarrassing situation,” George told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“There are basically eight people, maybe 10 when the runners come in, pushing, and it turns out I’m on the ball. There’s not a lot of skill in that.”
Jones has spoken about the importance of giving the nation a boost with his team’s rugby and had frequently spoken about tactical discipline in the run-up to Saturday’s game against Georgia.
Those two things don’t always go hand in hand, as George’s lack of enthusiasm for his hat-trick suggests.
There may have been few fireworks displays at Twickenham, but there were a few sparks to get the England fans excited.
Jonathan Joseph, who was playing band rather than center, had been told by Jones that he had free rein on the London turf and made the most of it.
Before an injury forced him to leave the field at the end of the first half, the Bath driver had danced through Georgian defenses twice; the second occasion led to a try for Elliot Daly.
And then there was Willis. His debut attempt might have shone more if it hadn’t been overshadowed by a hooker’s hat-trick, but his signature break-out steal also garnered attention.
The Wasps forward flaunted his impressive flexibility in the first 20 minutes as he bravely worked his way into the breakout alone and recovered the ball from Georgian hands.
Still, it may not have been the debut he had envisioned for himself, or the electric performance England fans had come to expect against weaker opposition.
There were no fans at Twickenham to welcome Willis into the England fold, but at least there was rugby. And that will have to be enough for now.
