64 1GM Thursday November 26 2020 | the timesSportRugby union
PATRICK KHACHFE/JMP/REX
“When I go back I always make
sure I try to mess around in the
garden or charge around and act like
a big kid, to try to make him laugh. It
is always nice to see a smile back on
their faces,” he says.
Willis is a hero to that boy, who has
been with the family for 13 months.
“He loves watching the boys on TV,”
Jo says. “If Jack is at home doing his
stretching then this little chap is
hanging over his shoulders and
trying to copy him.”
The longest any child has stayed
with the family was 22 months.
Seeing the children leave is a
“heartbreaking” moment but the
Willis family stay in touch with many
of the adoption families.
On the day of their son’s England
debut against Georgia, Jo and Steve
were inundated with photographs
of their former foster children waving
England flags and holding “Good luck
Jack” signs. “It is pretty special to
have that bond with these kids,”
Willis says.
The family’s purpose to help others
will continue for another generation.
Annabel, 18, has inherited her
mother’s talents for working with
children and Willis has decided to
start volunteering for a charity called
Home-Start. “My mum loved working
with them and I’d love to do my
part to give back,” Willis says.
“There are times where the
parents are fully to blame for
children going into foster care.
There are other times when they
have given everything they
possibly can but they can’t cope,
maybe financially, or the parents
have mental health issues or a
disability. Home-Start bridges
that gap to prevent children
going into care.”
That work can begin when
the day job allows. For now,
Willis is in camp with England.
Competition is fierce in the back row
but Willis, the best turnover-winning
flanker in the Gallagher Premiership,
is in contention to feature against
Wales in the Autumn Nations Cup.
Eddie Jones, the head coach, likes
Willis as a player and appreciates his
attitude, which is half the battle.
“He’s flipping tough,” Jones said.
“In Australian slang we’d call him a
knockabout bloke. He just gets on
with it. Nothing fazes him too much.”
That is not to say Willis is not
driven. As a boy, he drew up a chart
for his bedroom wall featuring all the
goals he wanted to achieve. “Play for
England” was on that list; so too was
“Make Mum and Dad proud”. “He
does that every day,” his mother says.professional sport, to take for granted
things like having a roof over your
head and three meals a day. It gives
you perspective when you are in a
tough place that you are not the worst
off, even when your mind can start to
say, ‘Why me? Why is this going on?’ ”
Willis has moved in with his
partner, Megan, who teaches children
with special educational needs, but he
stays in close contact with the four-
year-old foster child living with his
parents. They had a chat on Sunday
morning about Christmas because the
little boy is getting excited. In the
afternoon, the Willis brothers each
scored a try as Wasps defeated
Bristol Bears.J
ack Willis remembers vividly
the police arriving late at night
to the family home in Emmer
Green, on the outskirts of
Reading. A teenager at the
time, he was upstairs listening, aware
of exactly what was happening at the
front door. His parents, Jo and Steve,
were being called upon to take in
another foster child and give them a
second chance in life.
“I would go down to say hello and
you would see these poor frightened
children and think, ‘How lucky have
I been my whole life to have never
experienced what they are going
through right now?’,” Willis, the
Wasps and England flanker, says.
“You do whatever you can to make
a difference.”
The Willis family have fostered
seven children over the past decade,
ranging in age from tiny babies to
seven-year-olds, all of them arriving
on the doorstep in need of love,
protection and security. Some would
stay for days, others for nearly two
years before being adopted by their
“for ever families” or returning home.
“Some of the things these kids
have been through are incredibly
traumatic,” Willis says. “They have
had such a tough start. Sometimes
they are only two or three weeks old
and they have already had these
setbacks and started on the wrong
foot, going straight into care.
“It is a nice thing to be able to share
with them the love and affection that
we had growing up from our parents,‘These poor
children – I’m
the lucky one’
help them realise they are meant to
be treated that way and set them back
on the right path. That is a special
thing to be a part of.”
Growing up in that environment —
alongside his younger brother, Tom,
the Wasps No 8, and sister Annabel —
has had a profound impact on Willis,
shaping his character and his view of
the world. The 23-year-old has been
lauded to the skies recently, winning
player of the year awards and his first
England cap with a second in the
offing against Wales on Saturday.
Those who know him best — his
coaches, family and friends — have
no concerns about his head being
turned by the adulation. It is easy
now to understand why.
“[Having foster children in the
house] has been absolutely brilliant
for all of our children. It has made
them very grounded,” Jo, Jack’s
mother, says. “We didn’t have any of
the teenage ‘life’s unfair’ complaints
because they have seen what unfair
really is. Children have literally been
brought here at 11 at night by the
police. That is the tough side of life.”
Willis was 13 when his parents
called a family meeting around the
dining table to discuss their plan to
start fostering. “My mum had always
grown up working with children,” he
says. “We were all dead keen and got
stuck into it as a family. I absolutely
loved it. It was like having an extra
sibling or two around.”
When he wasn’t playing junior
rugby for Reading Abbey RFC, Willis
would be getting his hands dirty at
home, whether throwing a ball
around in the garden or at the
changing table. “My mum found it
entertaining that I was giving it a go
with nappies but I have always tried
to help out,” he says.
Rugby has always been a big part of
life in the family. Willis’s rapid rise
was halted in 2018 when a brutal kneeinjury cost him a place on
England’s tour to South Africa.
Having also undergone an ankle
operation, there was a period
when he was in a wheelchair with
both legs raised. In darkly comic
scenes, the only way that Steve,
who was a big bear of a No 8 in his
own playing days, could get his son
to physiotherapy sessions was by
wedging him into the boot of the car.
Willis found some solace and
perspective at home. The little boy
living with the family at the time also
needed to do daily leg exercises and
they would sit down on the floor
together to complete their
rehabilitation. “It was a pretty dark
period when I was in the wheelchair
and in the boot of the car but you
have got these kids around you who
are going through certain things,”
Willis says. “I injured my leg playing
professional sport and you realise
you are lucky to even be playingEngland’s new star tells
Alex Lowe about how
growing up with foster
children gave him
precious perspective
Wales v
England
Saturday, November 28
Kick-off: 4pm
TV: Amazon Prime
Radio: BBC 5 Livep p c T h p m h d t g t W CWillis on debut
for England
and, below,
with his mum
Jo, sister
Annabel,
brother Tom
and dad Steve