Ollie reaches Exiles' 200 club
Former St Bartholomew's student Ollie Hassell-Collins surpassed 200 points for London Irish when he touched down in the Exiles' 26-24 defeat to Harlequins.
The winger has now scored 40 tries for Irish since making his debut during the 2018/19 Championship campaign, establishing himself as a mainstay in the team and earning himself a call-up to Eddie Jones’ Six Nations squad in January.
The 23-year-old admits he’d trade personal milestones for Irish wins, but is confident the two will soon go hand in hand as the Exiles look to end a three game losing streak in the Gallagher Premiership.
He said: “I wasn’t really looking out for it, someone else had to tell me when it happened.
“But when I think about it now, it’s a pretty cool milestone to have achieved, I’m delighted.
“It’s nice to have happened for a club I’ve been with since the academy, but it’s a shame we weren’t able to win the game, that’s what’s most important.
"I want to keep improving as well as helping some of the current academy lads, it'd be great for some of them to reach this milestone too, that's important to the club.
“We’ve been so close in all of the last three games and the lads are still really upbeat, it’s all about fine margins and making sure we do the little things a bit better.”
Hassell-Collins, who has been linked with a move to Premiership giants Leicester Tigers, scored on his first team debut against Cornish Pirates, on his top flight bow in a win over Wasps and has since scored three hat-tricks and 40 tries for the Exiles.
“It’s always a sweet feeling scoring a try, it’s the best part of my job, but the ones on debut were really special,” he said.
“When I scored on my Premiership debut, I actually almost passed it to Ben Meehan, I saw there were 50 metres ahead of me and he was calling for it but I thought, ‘I’m having this’”.
It’s been a stellar individual season for Hassell-Collins, who first played rugby at Newbury, in which he tops the try-scoring charts with seven in seven appearances and is in the top 10 for defenders beaten, line breaks and gainline carries.
However it’s been an up and down campaign for Irish, who are second bottom in the league having struggled for consistency so far this term.
“I’m very happy with how I’m going and there’s been a lot of positives from the team performances, even if the scoreboards don’t necessarily show it,” Hassell-Collins said.
“At the end of the day I want to win games, we feel like we’re almost there.
“We’ve had opportunities to win games, we’ve shot ourselves in the foot a little bit sometimes, we’ve shown we’re still a really good team.”
Hassell-Collins and Irish travel to Exeter this weekend, looking to win in the league for the first time since October 1.
