Jack Willis retains Top 14 player award and says he still wants Test rugby

Jack Willis has retained France’s Top 14 best-player award and said he still wants to play Test rugby. The Toulouse flanker’s choice to remain in France keeps him outside England’s domestic-player selection policy, even as his club performances bring him another individual honour.

‘You know what you sacrifice,’ Willis told BBC Sport of his Test career. ‘It’s something I still want to do, but rules are rules.’ The 29-year-old has 14 England caps, but has not appeared for the national side since the 2023 Rugby World Cup. His latest remarks express an ambition; they do not announce a return to international rugby.

An award won in a crowded field

Willis won the award for the 2025-26 Top 14 season ahead of Bordeaux-Bègles fly-half Matthieu Jalibert and Clermont-Auvergne fly-half Harry Plummer, BBC Sport reported. According to the BBC, he is only the second player to retain the best-player accolade, after France captain Antoine Dupont. The result recognises another season in which Willis has been prominent for Toulouse, although the award does not change the rules governing his Test selection.

His season included a player-of-the-match performance in Toulouse’s Top 14 final victory over Montpellier in June, according to the BBC. That win gave Willis a fourth French title to add to the Champions Cup crown he won in 2024. The trophies help explain why his international absence remains a live question: his club career has continued to produce honours while his England career has stopped at 14 appearances.

The England appearance that sets the clock

Willis’s last England match was the 71-0 win over Chile on 23 September 2023. World Rugby’s match report records that he scored a try in the World Cup pool game. That date matters for more than his England record: it starts the three-year interval in World Rugby’s rules for a player seeking to represent another union through a birthright transfer.

Under World Rugby’s Regulation 8.6, a player who has represented one union may apply to represent another if they meet the specified birthright criteria, at least three years have passed since their last appearance for the former union, and World Rugby approves the move. The three years since Willis’s Chile appearance elapsed on 23 September 2026. Passing that date satisfies the time condition; it does not, by itself, permit him to play for a new national side.

The regulation recognises a parent’s or grandparent’s birthplace as a potential national link. BBC Sport reports that Willis’s grandfather was born in Belfast, making Ireland a theoretical route under the birthright provision. Any move would still require an application and World Rugby approval. The material reported so far does not establish that Willis has applied, received approval or been selected by Ireland.

A possible route, with further obstacles

Willis treated the Ireland possibility lightly when speaking to reporters. ‘I’m a quarter Irish, but they have the same rules as England,’ he said, according to the BBC. ‘You need to do some digging, that’s your job, you find the way [around the rules]!’ His joke points to a separate practical issue: qualification under World Rugby’s transfer rules and selection by Ireland are different questions.

BBC Sport says Ireland strongly prefers home-based players, although it has made rare exceptions. It cites Jonny Sexton and Tommy Bowe as players who continued to represent Ireland after moves abroad, while Simon Zebo was excluded after leaving. The BBC judged a compromise allowing Willis to stay at Toulouse and play for Ireland highly unlikely. Those examples show why the expiry of a three-year waiting period should not be read as a likely Test return.

For now, the established change is the second consecutive Top 14 best-player award, alongside Willis’s renewed statement that he wants to play internationally. England’s domestic-player policy remains the obstacle to another cap while he plays in France. The birthright rule offers a possible application route elsewhere, but no reported application, approval or Ireland selection turns that possibility into an international fixture.