Nic Dolly on rise to England cap and Tigers future

Dolly was without a club at the start of 2021, but made his England debut against South Africa last month after an extraordinary rise to prominence

Nic Dolly wasn't concerned about key, pitch or volume.

When it came to selecting a song to serenade his new England team-mates with after beating South Africa, he was counting words instead.

"It was Back for Good," he said, recalling reviving Take That for his go at a debutant tradition.

"I was actually having a good think about it, in regards to having a song where the verses were not too long, so I wasn't singing on my own for too long."

It's a running theme. Dolly doesn't demand attention. He doesn't speak more than he needs to. As he sits down with the media, he repeatedly says how he would prefer to let his rugby to do the talking.

After five minutes, he stands up to leave, thinking, perhaps hoping, he's finished, only to apologise and return when he realises there are more questions to face.

Because, whether the 22-year-old likes it or not, his story deserves telling at some length.

This year alone has been an astonishing rush of events.

He began it without even a club. Instead, as lockdown bit in January, he was focused on building his personal training business, designing work-out plans and delivering remote pep talks to clients.

In February though, as second-tier Championship teams prepared to play for the first time in a year, Coventry offered him a two-match trial.

Dolly scored two tries in a warm-up match against Jersey, another against Saracens and never really stopped.

By March, after three tries in as many Championship games, Leicester swooped to sign him.

On the opening weekend of this season, he scored two tries as Tigers beat Exeter. Another three followed in his next four appearances. England came calling. Dolly was named in their autumn squad.

And when their scrum and line-out wobbled against the world champion Springboks, Dolly got his chance, coming on to win his first cap in the final 20 minutes of a famous win.

"You couldn't write it any better, or any faster to be honest," Dolly told BBC's Leicester Tigers Rugby Show.

"For me it was just about trying to work as hard as I can and good things come when you work hard."

Dolly may have been reluctant to take centre stage with a post-match solo at Twickenham, but he had Eddie Jones to sing his praises.

The England head coach summed up Dolly's year as going from "shepherd's pie with Coventry" to "beef wellington with us".

"What a story in terms of resilience," Jones added. Because Jones knows Dolly's story stretches several years and several thousand miles further. And is not unlike the coach's own.

On a brief stint in England in the early 1990s, Jones played three games for Leicester wearing the hooker's shirt that Dolly now occupies.

Both he and Dolly, though, started their rugby journey across the other side of the world in Sydney.

While Jones was brought up in Matraville, Dolly is from the other side of the Parramatta river and the northern suburb of Kenthurst.

Dolly played for Eastwood, while Jones used to turn out for their rivals Randwick.

"We have spoken a bit about it," said Dolly of their shared roots.

"He would be the first to say himself he was a small hooker and for the size of everyone now I am quite a small hooker [5ft 11in and 16st 3lb], so for me it just about getting stuck in, throwing my body about and being as aggressive as I can be."

In the southern hemisphere sun, Dolly played sport all year round, mixing in cricket and football with his rugby. But his childhood also featured regular family trips to England's north west.

Dolly was signed up by Sale's academy after turning out for a trial on a family holiday from Australia

His mother Sharon was born and lived in Manchester until she moved down under after school. His maternal grandparents are still in the city.

In late 2016, he travelled over with his mother, brother and twin sisters for Christmas. He was supposed to head back in late January. But it turned into a whole lot more than a holiday.

Keen to keep up his fitness, Dolly asked his Sale-supporting grandfather Tony if there was anywhere he could get in a couple of games of good-quality rugby.

His grandfather sent a few emails. And one landed in the inbox of Sale's academy manager. He was given a run-out, a contract offer followed, and Dolly, who had never entertained ideas of a becoming a full-time rugby player in Australia, was picked for England Under-20s.

But then, just as suddenly, it seemed as if he might not make it as a professional in England either.

Covid landed. Crowd restrictions squeezed budgets. And Sale let Dolly go in the summer of 2020.

He revived his personal training business. He told his customers about the importance of dedication, commitment and hard work.

And then, when fate sent him to Coventry for another chance, he practised what he preached.

He says the decision to represent England rather than hold out for any Wallaby call-up was easy.

"The choice was made for me in a sense," he added

"I had nothing really to go back to in terms of rugby back in Australia and so the obvious decision was to repay the country that have given me the opportunity."

This weekend presents another new challenge in a year of opportunities and Tests.

Leicester, top of the Premiership, travel to Bordeaux-Begles, top of the French Top 14, in one of the most enticing games in the opening round of the Champions Cup.

The Tigers, two-time winners around the turn of the millennium, will be hoping to make it out of the pool stages for the first time since 2016.

"I have a long way to go," added Dolly. "I don't think it would be right for me to sit here and say I have come so far.

"I definitely have developed a lot as a player, particularly in the last six to eight months, but there is so much more for me to do."

Starting in the south of France on Saturday.

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