Jack Nowell, son of a Cornish trawlerman, knows all about the courage it takes to be a winner for England, playing with no fear

• The 21-year-old has five England caps after making his Test debut in 2014
• Stuart Lancaster has named Jack Nowell in his England Six Nations squad
• The Exeter Chiefs winger made his club debut at 19 years old

By Sam Peters For Mail On Sunday

Published: 18:28 EST, 24 January 2015 | Updated: 11:35 EST, 27 January 2015

Jack Nowell's dad cannot recall when he was most in peril at sea. A 45-year-old Cornish trawlerman whose family have hauled fish out of the often treacherous waters around Newlyn for more than two centuries, Mike Nowell tries to put the risk inherent to his job out of his mind.

‘There’ve been so many hairy moments it’s hard to say which one was worst,’ he said. ‘I knew men who’ve been lost at sea. It’s an awful feeling when you lose someone close to you. As a fisherman you try and put that to the back of your mind. If you thought about it all the time, you wouldn’t do it.’

It would be churlish to compare life as a professional rugby player with the day-to-day threats faced by fishermen, but it’s clear bravery and a willingness to embrace risk has been passed from father to son. 

Exeter Chiefs wing Jack Nowell  is an ambassador of the Penlee Lifeboat Station in Cornwall

When Stuart Lancaster was asked last week what it was about Jack he admired most, his response was unequivocal.

‘He’s got the fearless courage to be thrown into a Test arena and say “Give me the ball, I want the ball” and make a difference,’ said the England head coach.

‘It’s what he brings to the team. He makes very few errors, has a kicking game, an ability to beat defenders and his defence is very, very good. He brings a no-fear mentality.’ 

The 21-year-old scored a try in Saturday's 45-3 Challenge Cup victory over Bayonne

The Exeter Chiefs wing hugs England team-mate Danny Care during last year's Six Nations 

Lancaster is clearly a huge admirer of the 21-year-old Exeter Chief who, under different circumstances, could easily have followed dad Mike into the family business.

‘I always joked with mum growing up saying “I don’t know what I’m going to do after school, I’m going out fishing with dad”,’ said Jack.

‘She’d say “No, you are not, you’ve got an education to fall back on”. I’d wind her up saying I was going to be a fisherman.

‘I never thought I’d make it as a professional rugby player. All through school I didn’t know what I was going to do. It wasn’t until I got to college that it really hit me that if I put my head down for two years I’d have a contract waiting for me.' 

Nowell trudges off with England team-mates after the Six Nations clash in Paris against France last February

Exeter Rugby player Jack Nowell onboard a RNLI boat in the Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall with his father

Nowell’s exceptional form this season since returning from an operation on his left knee — which caused him to miss last summer’s tour to New Zealand after patella tendinitis had left him to ‘play on one leg’ for almost five years — saw him named in Lancaster’s 34-man Six Nations training squad.

A strong showing in camp over the next fortnight will see him earn his sixth cap on the right wing against Wales in Cardiff in 12 days, when England open the Six Nations.Twelve months after making his debut against France in Paris, and with a home World Cup around the corner, Nowell looks set for another stellar year. But it could all have been so different. Far from the rough, tough, tattooed figure Nowell cuts on the Newlyn harbour jetty as we talk — just yards from the family home he grew up in — the Cornishman admits he took time to embrace the sport he now loves.

‘I hated it to start with,’ he said. ‘I was about six years old when mum first took me along to rugby training but I wouldn’t play. I’d cling on her legs and refuse to go out. There were a lot of tears and tantrums. 

Jack Nowell in a school photo with his sister and two brothers whilst at the Newlyn School, Cornwall, in 2008

‘Eventually, after a couple of months I just went for it and haven’t really looked back. Dad used to bribe me by paying me a quid for every try I scored but he stopped when I scored 12 in one game against Redruth. He said “You can play on your own now, son”.’

A decade later Nowell cut his teeth in one of English rugby’s toughest arenas.

‘I think I was one of the youngest players to play for Redruth’s first team and I learned a lot there,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t happy just getting along so I really went for it. There was a guy called Nathan Pedley who was a well-known Redruth player who’d been there for years and years. He’s a small guy but a hard guy.

Jack Nowell poses for the Mail on Sunday onboard a RNLI boat just out from Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall

Jack Nowell (Bottom row, second from the left) celebrates with team mates after winning a game as a junior

‘In my first training session we were playing touch rugby and he obviously thought “There’s this new kid, I’m going to give him a whack”. I remember I caught the ball and he absolutely smoked me. It was a high, late and tip-tackle all in one. It was known as a Nathan Pedley tackle.

‘I thought “Right, OK, this is men’s rugby” and got up and played on. People took notice of that because I’d just dusted myself down and come back for more.’ Precisely the same mental and physical toughness w as on show on debut in Paris last year, when Nowell’s spilled kick-off led to a try for France winger Yoann Huget inside two minutes.

It could have crushed a lesser man but Nowell shrugged off the mistake and set about repairing the damage to finish the match comfortably in credit, despite a narrow defeat that ultimately cost England a first Six Nations championship under Lancaster. 

Nowell in action for England (left) and back at six-years-old before his first ever rugby match (right)

‘The coaches said the reason I got picked after that was because I didn’t allow that one mistake to affect me,’ said Nowell.

The last time England were in Cardiff they suffered a humiliating 30-3 defeat in what was the first serious blow to Lancaster’s reign.

When the England coach sits down to pick his team, he’ll be looking for players who embrace the big stage and Nowell has shown time and again — notably in Exeter’s Heineken Cup defeat by Jonny Wilkinson’s star-studded Toulon side last season — that he fears no-one. 

Jack's mother Louisa Nowell and her son Frankie aged 11, at their family home in Newlyn, Cornwall

Nowell puts on all the right gear for photos as an ambassador of the Penlee Lifeboat Station in Cornwall

Nowell was playing for England Under 20s when Lancaster’s men were mauled in Cardiff but the youngster believes he’s gained enough rugby experience to handle the heat. 

‘I was chucked into a Premiership game for Exeter when I was 19 and if I’d gone in being afraid then I might not have got picked again. It was the same in the Six Nations last year but Stuart backed me.’

Whatever happens now, this son of Newlyn will return home to Cornwall with his feet on the ground. As an ambassador of the Penlee Lifeboat Station — who lost eight men on a rescue one grim night in December 1981 — Nowell and his dad have grown up recognising real bravery when they see it.

Nowell ran in a try during the impressive 45-3 Exeter Chiefs victory over Bayonne in the Challenge Cup

Jack Nowell is an RNLI ambassador and supporter of the Penlee Lifeboat Appeal.

The Penlee Lifeboat Station Appeal is raising £200,000 towards the cost of a new lifeboat station for the volunteer crew. To donate, go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/penleelifeboatstationappeal

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