‘Winning culture’ – England rivals are in trouble as the next Kieran Read set to be unleashed

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England have a Kieran Read in the making and Steve Borthwick should be unleash him on the Six Nations.

That’s according to Lawrence Dallaglio, who thinks Saracens No.8 Tom Willis has a great career ahead of him, using All Blacks great Read as an example of the type of weapon he can be for England.

Read, the double World Cup-winning captain who led New Zealand 52 times, successfully delivered a physical threat to compliment his clever ball handling skills.

And England legend Dallaglio is confident Willis, who has been tearing it up in the Premiership, will become a future England captain, mirroring Read's rise.

At 6ft 3in and nearly 19 stone, he could have a point.

Read won a remarkable 127 caps for New Zealand, while Willis has just a single appearance for England, but Dallaglio is confident that is about to change.

Like Read, Willis can also win crucial line out ball and this skill marks the Saracens No.8 as an attacking weapon in all areas.

"Tom is the best forward in the Premiership and is ahead in every metric; tackles made, ball carries etc,” the 2003 World Cup winner told talkSPORT.

“More significantly, he is having moments that affect the outcome of games and that is more important. He is doing that on a consistent basis and England have been searching for a No.8 for a while now.

“He will probably captain England in the future. You could accelerate that process even quicker.

"Tom is an old school No.8 and has a bit of Kieran Read about him, and the best sides in the world have significant ball skills in their forwards as well as power and size.

“France and South Africa have big forwards and England need a bit more of that and I was surprised Tom didn't make the 2023 World Cup squad.

"I was even more surprised he didn't make the Autumn Tests because his performances at the start of the season merited that and in he should have been four caps better off."

Willis has always been a clever footballer and spending a year in the Top 14 league with Bordeaux in France saw him deliver the physical threat that Borthwick wants his players to offer at Test level, before he was brought back to the Premiership with Saracens.

While in France, Willis played against his brother, Jack – also an England international back row player – who is enjoying a massively successful time with Toulouse having, like Tom, had to leave Wasps when the club folded.

While Tom returned across the Channel to keep his test hopes live, Jack has stayed in France which means he cannot be picked by England.

Dallaglio was at Wasps when the Willis brothers first arrived and recalled of them: "Tom and Jack were always destined to play for England from the moment they joined Wasps, and back then you could tell they had international rugby written all over them.

“Tom was captain of England U20s and was more prominent than Jack and their journeys through rugby have been remarkable.

"Jack is not going to win many more England caps for a while as he is playing for Toulouse, while Tom was also always going to play for England, it was just a question of when.

“Steve Borthwick played him in a warm-up game for the 2023 World Cup against Wales and he then went to Bordeaux and he came back to the right club in Saracens with its winning culture.

"Tom has worked very hard and Sarries have brought the best out of him.

"Last Autumn is perhaps when we should have brought players into the squad and started to have a real look at them. When we finished the Autumn with three losses and a win over Japan the question is do England twist or stick with the same players?

"We all expected a better return and just beating Japan was like being dealt a bad hand in poker. England are playing catch up at the moment and Ireland, Scotland and France are ahead of us. You can't hide from the truth and we need to see a new look squad.

"England play two of the best teams in the world back to back at the start of the Six Nations in Ireland away and them home to France.

“There is no greater challenge in the game than facing Ireland away, and in terms of the Lions there are a lot of Irish and Scottish players pencilled into the squad list for Australia later this year.

It’s up to the England squad to change that by finding a way to beat Ireland.”

Lawrence Dallaglio is part of the Premier Sports team bringing every game live from the Investec Champions Cup throughout the competition. Visit premiersports to sign-up.