It is not a subject often aired in international men’s rugby union but, hey, it is 2023, baby. So here goes: can nail polish improve athletic performance? In the view of Ollie Hassell-Collins, about to win his second cap for England, there is no doubt about it. “Absolutely,” he murmurs as we both gaze down at his red and white painted fingernails. “Look good, feel good, play good. I’m a strong believer in it.”
Good on the personable London Irish wing for having the courage of his convictions. It is not so long ago that England dressing rooms were full of unobtrusive black boots and keep-your-head-down reticence. Hassell-Collins, with his patriotic nail art and Harry Potter-loving snitch tattoo on his arm, is living, breathing proof of the new orthodoxy.
The more time you spend with the shyly endearing, idiosyncratic 24-year-old, the more you begin to wonder if he and his girlfriend Eloise, a legal secretary, are colourfully pointing the way ahead for millions of diffident young athletes across all sports. Hassell-Collins has been an England hopeful for some time but, coincidence or not, it is only since he pledged to be truer to himself that his big break has arrived.
It helps, of course, that he also has the physical attributes to be a standout Test player. Tall, strong, defensively hard-working and the possessor of a powerful left boot, it is definitely in England’s interests to give him the ball. Gradually, though, he is realising that his on-field mindset is inextricably tied to his personal self-image. “If I go out on the pitch feeling like I look the part it gives me confidence,” he says simply. “I feel that when I get the ball I can do anything.”
Hence the nails. When he first mentioned it to Eloise the feedback was immediately positive. “My girlfriend gave me a lot of confidence to try it. She’d say: ‘Just do it.’ And I kind of liked it. It just grew from there. Previously I’d thought about it but never actually did it. I don’t expect every rugby player will be painting their nails any time soon but it’s just me. It’s the way I am. I don’t see any point in changing that.”
Maybe it also helps having all the Netflix documentary cameras around: if you want to get your name out there it helps to come across as slightly different. Hassell-Collins, as it happens, also possesses three cats – one of them called Albus after the headmaster of Hogwarts – whom he takes out for walks and clearly dotes upon. “You come home after a win or a loss and they’re still going to want to cuddle you.”
But when you hear from those who have known Hassell-Collins from way back they speak not of a mildly eccentric dandy but someone who fully deserves everything good coming his way. “I’ve got three kids with a fourth on the way but my daughter says Ollie is my favourite son,” chuckles Declan Danaher, London Irish’s assistant coach who has known him since he was 15 and was the recipient of a special post-game hug at Twickenham last weekend.
“People see all the wonderful things now – his brilliant carrying, high-ball skills, that left boot – but it’s taken at least eight years and plenty of highs and lows to get here. Sometimes people don’t see what’s going on underneath the water. I know how much it means to Ollie and how hard he’s worked.” And if colourful nails also help, why not? “A lot of it is fear, isn’t it?” confirms Danaher. “If you’re happy and comfortable in your own skin, you’re always going to play better.”
The long road from Newbury RFC, where his father Neil once played in the front row, has also been an occasionally winding one. At one point he even stopped playing rugby. “I took a year out and played football but I couldn’t get behind it. Dad wasn’t happy either. He wouldn’t watch the games.”
Eventually, though, he began to grow and was picked up by Irish’s well-run academy. “I was quite a late bloomer. If you look at someone like Louis Rees-Zammit his progress has been unbelievable. It took me a while to get the maturity and belief in myself, my size and my power. Dec and James Lightfoot-Brown at Irish would say: ‘Just run and test yourself.’ I think I’ve now reached a point where I’m making my mark on each game.”
Even so, as the first Exiles player to start a Test for England since 2014, his debut last Saturday against Scotland was beyond even his long-held dreams. “I’m still struggling to put into words how I felt. Normally I’d be listening to some music … it usually starts mellow and gets a bit harder closer to kick-off. But a few of the boys told me to take off my earphones to hear the noise as we walked through the crowds to the changing rooms. There was a lot of pride going around. I’m going to remember that day for the rest of my life.”
The next step, as he freely admits, is to get on the ball more and show exactly what he can do at Italy’s expense on Sunday. “I want to use my super-strength which is my carry, breaking tackles and getting over the gainline.”
Having seen Duhan van der Merwe – “Fair play to him, it was a hell of a try” – and the Azzurri’s elusive full-back Ange Capuozzo steal the limelight last week, he would clearly love to leave similar scorch-marks across the Twickenham turf.
Danaher is also looking forward to seeing him display his defensive hunger. “He’s possibly one of the most aggressive defenders I’ve ever coached. I can’t think of anyone, even when I played, who could be that destructive in the tackle.”
Whatever the odds, his protegé is determined to do it his way. “Not everyone’s like me in terms of how they express themselves. But if you look at Capuozzo, he’s a fantastic example. Small, not very heavy but absolutely tearing it up.” Keep an eye out for Hassell-Collins. You’ll spot him easily enough.
