Without a club for now, the former Bath and Leicester Tigers stalwart is unambiguous about his ambition to go one better than 2019 and win the World Cup
“I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a stressful period,” he says quietly, gazing down at his fingernails. “There were definitely days when I was expected to play in big games and would be under a fair bit of stress outside rugby.”
Having poached Leicester’s entire coaching team, some would say the RFU owed the Tigers a favour. Watson, though, neatly sidesteps the term ‘centrally contracted’. Given the way he was unceremoniously squeezed out of Bath after nine years – “I learned more about the business element of rugby” – the 29-year-old is well qualified to discuss the harsher side of professional rugby.
It is also a massive driver, Watson reckons, for others in the squad – “whether they say so or not” – with the disciplinary furore over Owen Farrell adding to the collective sense of resolve in advance of a defining tournament.
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