Rugby: Peripatetic winger looking to excel for Otago

New Otago winger Jack Wilson at Otago training at Logan Park yesterday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
New Otago winger Jack Wilson at Otago training at Logan Park yesterday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Jack Wilson - has boots, will travel.

The new Otago winger arrives in the South with a rugby career in which he has travelled the world, and he is only 25.

Wilson grew up in Bay of Plenty and is the son of former All Black hooker Brett Wilson, who played three games for the national side in the tour of England and Scotland in 1983.

Wilson junior was a boarder at King's College in Auckland where he played in the same first XV as Black Caps opening bowler Tim Southee.

Wilson played hooker or openside flanker at school and then went to the University of Canterbury where he played No 8 for the University side, with future Hawkes Bay captain Brendon O'Connor playing on the openside flank.

He graduated with a commerce degree in marketing and during that time played in a few sevens tournaments.

Gordon Tietjens took notice and he was called into a national training camp and eventually made his debut for the national sevens side at Hong Kong in 2012.

He played three tournaments for New Zealand and the same year was picked for Bay of Plenty as a winger.

''I was playing at No 8 and they asked me to have a go on the wing. They had a bit of history doing that with the likes of Jason Hona,'' he said.

Wilson made the move out to the flanks and played a successful season for Bay of Plenty in 2012.

However, his life took another turn after a trip to an invitational sevens tournament in Dubai later that year.

''I changed my return ticket to go on to London to catch up with a few mates. When I was there a friend of a friend got me to go down to Sarries [Saracens] for a couple of days. A couple of days turned into a couple of weeks and I ended up staying for two years.''

Wilson played on the wing for 20 games in the premiership and also played in other Saracens teams.

''It was great fun. They treated you really well. We had trips to Bermuda and that. We did some cool stuff.''

After two years in London he headed south to link with the Sharks in this year's Super rugby competition.

''I had played under John Smit and Brendan Venter at Sarries and really liked them as coaches. They asked me to come down and play for the Sharks. I really loved South Africa. It was a cool place to be and nice and relaxed.''

He played five games off the bench for the Sharks and had signed for the Currie Cup but said he wanted to have a crack back in New Zealand.

''I contacted a few people here and my agent looked around. Cory [Otago coach Cory Brown] got in touch and it went from there really.''

With an English mother, Wilson also played for an England team in an Olympic sevens qualifying tournament in Exeter last month, so he could play for Great Britain at next year's Olympics.

Wilson said he had no real plan how his career so far had panned out but maybe it was in the genes.

''My dad was a bit like me. He played a season in Cape Town, played in France, a season just outside Newcastle in England. He was a rugby nomad as well. He is pretty supportive of me as he saw the world playing rugby.''

Wilson's priority now was to play well for Otago and, hopefully, impress enough to get picked for the next level.

Otago made a disappointing start to its season with a first-up loss to Canterbury and it does not get any easier this week, taking on Hawkes Bay. Wilson said the side was all the better for the game against the Red and Blacks.

''It is totally different from England where you have these big juggernaut teams who rumble into town and know they are going to win. Here any side can beat another. It is just how you turn up on the day.''

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