England vs Wales: Kiwi convert Willi Heinz ready to do his grandmother proud in international debut

Former Christchurch scrum-half named vice-captain for England's opening Rugby World Cup warm-up match five years after playing against them

There will be one person in particular looking down on Willi Heinz with more pride than anyone else when he makes his England debut this Sunday, given it was her doing that the scrum-half will wear the red rose in the first place.

The 32-year-old Gloucester captain has left it late to make his international debut, but five years after lining up for the Crusaders against England in a New Zealand tour match, Heinz will wear the No 9 shirt for the national team in the opening Quilter International against Wales for the first time.

He has one woman to thank: his grandmother Aylieff.

“My grandmother - my mother’s mother - was born and raised in a little place called Bishop’s Waltham near Southampton,” Heinz said after being named in an experimental side for Sunday’s Twickenham clash as one of two vice-captain’s alongside Bath flanker Sam Underhill.

“She met my grandfather who was with the New Zealand Navy in World War II. She was a WREN (Women’s Royal Naval Service). They hit it off pretty quickly and then she was on a boat back to New Zealand.

“My grandfather died when I was five or six. She lived four or five houses up the street from us and in the latter stages of her life she moved in with us. I was always really close with her. She was an avid sports fan and a very proud English woman. She never got the opportunity to get back here as much as she would have liked but she always really encouraged me and my sisters to come over and live here if we got the opportunity. I know she would be hugely proud of me getting this chance on Sunday.

“She was a massive sports fan, whether it was rugby, tennis, cricket. She loved it all.”

Heinz will have little time to take in the special moment at Twickenham though as he will find himself in the crosshairs of a Welsh pack jammed full of Grand Slam winners, with Warren Gatland naming a full-strength side from what he has available to him.

But the story of Heinz’s rise to the England starting jersey from Christchurch via Kingsholm remains a remarkable, if scarcely believable, story. Heinz was relatively unknown on these shores when he was first called into the England squad by Eddie Jones in 2017, getting his first taste of the national team set-up at a Brighton training camp before missing out on selection for the tour to Argentina in the summer.

“I went to that camp a couple of years ago and I’ve had a couple of messages from him (Jones) in the last couple of years, but I struggled with injury for 12-18 months so I never really got a good string of games together for Gloucester, to really put myself in the (England) conversation,” he said. “Last season, after a little lay-off at the start, I managed to play the rest of the season and I got a message from him at the back end of the season saying he’d been watching my progress.

“A couple of weeks later, we had one-on-ones with the England coaches and he kind of made it clear what he liked in my play and what I could keep working on. Then I was lucky enough to be named in the training camp to start preparing for the World Cup.”

Heinz qualifies for England through his grandmother (Reuters)

Heinz started the 38-7 defeat against England for the Crusaders in June 2014 in a game that a certain Danny Cipriani starred in, and as recent as seven weeks ago it seemed a safer bet to see the talented fly-half make the final 31 for the Rugby World Cup than it did Heinz. But where others have fallen by the wayside, Heinz has seized his chance to grab the one and only starting No 9 shirt before that final squad is decided on Monday.

"The qualities that I see in Heinzy is that he connects people,” noted defence coach John Mitchell, a fellow Kiwi in the England ranks. “He is a very good defensive organiser, he communicates effectively, he has got a strong kicking game. He enjoys a tackle and he also looks to support. He’s a very quiet, unassuming competitor but he gets through a lot of work.”

England have been keen to stress that Sunday’s match will not decide who stays and who goes to Japan next month, so it seems increasingly likely that Heinz will find himself in the squad having not played a minute of international rugby before this summer. That wasn’t the aim for the former Canterbury half-back though when he first moved to England in 2015.

“I always knew I would be eligible through my English heritage but I didn’t come over here assuming that I would get an opportunity,” Heinz added. “It was about playing really well for Gloucester, that was always my focus; settling in really well in the area, bringing a young family over and then diving in head first with Gloucester and trying to be as good as I can for them.

“I was not trying to change the way Gloucester play but come in and play the way Gloucester want to play. If you start doing that and performing at that level then potentially you start getting opportunities higher up.”

Willi Heinz will start his first match for England against Wales on Sunday (Getty)

Heinz may be uncapped, but at 32 years old and with more than 50 appearances for the Crusaders to his name - the most successful side in Super Rugby history - Heinz has been around the block a few times. That experience helps to provide support for first-choice scrum-half Ben Youngs, who for so long has rivalled Danny Care for the No 9 shirt. Now the competition comes in a very different shape and style, but it is one that Youngs has been impressed by.

“They’re not the same player, they’re very different in terms of how they play,” said Youngs. “In terms of Willi, it’s calmness, it’s a lot more emphasis on speed to rucks, ball away, consistency of delivering his skillset. He has a real accurate kicking game and calmness towards that as well.

“Willi’s come in and he’s been terrific if I’m totally honest. He obviously had a great run with Gloucester throughout the year, but he brings a lot of leadership and direction, and a demand of the forwards especially. I think that he throws himself out there, he wants to learn and asks loads of questions. He wants to really get a grip of how we play here and how he can add to that and do his thing. I know he’s very excited about the weekend and I’m sure he’ll be able to showcase what he’s about.”