Advertisement

Rugby World Cup heartache has fired up Alex Lozowski again

Getty Images
Getty Images

Alex Lozowski will make his 100th appearance for Saracens at Munster on Saturday. It is an honour that clearly fills the centre with pride. At Sarries, appearances do not come easy.

The 26-year-old admits that he has been watching the milestone near, wondering when he might reach it. Thomond Park is some place to do it.

But it also arrives at a time when Lozowski is looking to start over after a disappointment that has hung ­heavily over him: missing out on Eddie Jones’s World Cup squad.

Lozowski won the last of his five England caps against Japan 13 months ago. He is one of four players who have not been picked since, but Jones spoke to him during the Six Nations and told him to be ready in case of injury when he selected Piers Francis for the World Cup instead. “It’s not been radio silence,” says Lozowski.

In his mid-twenties, the tournament had been an obvious target for years. He had enjoyed being one of the many Saracens players heading into camp together. Now, when it mattered most, he was the odd one out.

“It was a good summer, I enjoyed my time off,” he adds. “But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about another place I could have been. Missing out on something like that is always going to play on your mind.

“It wasn’t the easiest thing to just forget about. I’m sure it would be the same for anyone who wasn’t picked, that competitive spirit just comes out and you want to be involved.”

His response was two-fold: to cut himself off from the tournament, then train hard to hit the ground running this term. “There was a lot of training and not a lot of games to sink your teeth into,” he says. “That can be a bit tedious. When you’ve not played for so long, you just think, ‘Blimey, I really want to play now’.

“I used to be much more on the rollercoaster. If things were going well, I thought I’d cracked it. If things went badly, it was the end of the world. But it’s about making sure you are happy in your own headspace. You still have to play well, train properly, have a spring in your step. That’s the challenge of professional sport, there will be ups and downs.”

Escaping a World Cup when rugby is your life is not as easy in the internet age. He watched games as an England fan and friend of so many enjoying the career high he craved, but little else.

“I had to not look at it. It was painful to see while it was going on,” he says of social media. “I didn’t find it easy to switch off from. I watched the games, but was happy when it was over. I was relieved that it was done and that everyone could get on with stuff again and there’d be a clean slate for everyone.”

After a solid start to the season the comeback trail is well under way for Lozowski, who is determined to make England’s Six Nations squad. For tomorrow’s Champions Cup clash, he returns to the starting line-up in a more youthful side showing nine changes from the one that beat Bath last week.

He believes the competition for places means he cannot let his standards drop.

“I’ve never known it to be so hard to get a game,” he says. “I just have to keep pounding the rock here to even get in the team.”

Munster v Saracens, tomorrow, 5.30pm, BT Sport 2