{"id":418057,"date":"2026-02-10T13:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418057\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:23:07","slug":"england-hopeful-ollie-hassell-collins-wants-to-find-his-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418057\/","title":{"rendered":"England hopeful Ollie Hassell-Collins wants to find his voice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With his bleach-blonde hair, earring, painted finger nails and laidback demeanour, Ollie Hassell-Collins\u2019 signing by Leicester<\/a> for the start of the 2023\/24 season never felt like an obvious marriage made in heaven.<\/p>\n

And that initial impression seemed to be validated as the exciting winger struggled to get his hands on the ball and make much of an impact in the very early stages of his carrer at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.<\/p>\n

However, the two quickly learned to love one another and Tigers fans now relish having the former London Irish<\/a> man on one wing and Adam Radwan<\/a>, when fit, on the other, as both can make things happen when seemingly nothing is on.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that Leicester still sensibly play to their strengths upfront, Hassell-Collins is enjoying the style of rugby adopted by Geoff Parling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to turn into a Bristol<\/a> or anything like that. But we\u2019re trying to move the ball more, get the wingers more touches, get the outside centres more touches, just creating one-on-ones. It\u2019s been good fun, I\u2019m enjoying it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to go away from what we\u2019re good at, which is the kick stuff. That\u2019s still a massive part of our game and it\u2019s a great way to get the ball back, or create chaos. And obviously our forwards are very good at getting a lot of joy from the scrum and the maul and winning penalties. It\u2019s just adding adding little bits to our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hassell-Collins\u2019 try-scoring prowess, which he demonstarted again with a brace for England<\/a> A vs Ireland<\/a> XV last weekend, has been very evident for Tigers, with a try every other game in the PREM (22 from 44 appearances), not to mention plenty of assists.<\/p>\n

However, the Reading-born winger, who turns 27 in a week\u2019s time, feels now is the time to add another element to his game \u2013 leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got an opportunity, especially in this (PREM Rugby Cup) block, being one of the more senior guys, to maybe improve my leadership skills and maybe be a bit more of a voice in the squad, which I haven\u2019t been in the past. So I\u2019m looking forward to that challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just backing myself a lot more; I\u2019ve been around the game a long time, I know what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s just making sure I speak when it\u2019s needed and making sure that it\u2019s important information, not just saying something for the sake of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that three years have passed since the last of his two senior England caps, Hassell-Collins would have qualified for Wales<\/a> on the grandparent ruling \u2013 until that route back to international rugby was shut down by his appearance for England A.<\/p>\n

Freddie Steward\u2019s fall from grace and subsequent return to the coach\u2019s good books is an example to Hassell-Collins that all is not lost in terms of a Test recall, especially now that the England A<\/a> pathway to the first team has been restored.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was obviously George Kloska<\/a> last week with the A team, and now he\u2019s in the senior squad. So there\u2019s there\u2019s proof of that progression, which is good to see,\u201d said Hassell-Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good wingers. It\u2019s obviously a coach\u2019s opinion, so as long as I\u2019m doing what he\u2019s telling me, and I\u2019m improving and playing well here, then we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hassell-Collins only caught the last 20 minutes or so of England\u2019s 48-7 threashing of Wales in the Six Nations, as he spent the best part of the day travelling back from Ireland from A team duty.<\/p>\n

But as much as he enjoyed seeing Ollie Chessum<\/a> and Freddie Steward<\/a> tearing it up at Twickenham, he makes no secret of his desire to be out there in the thick of the action himself, rather than watching at home on the sofa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to play for England again. I think English rugby is in a great spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the here and the now, a place in the semi-finals of the PREM Rugby Cup Leicester\u2019s for the taking.<\/p>\n

The Pool B leaders take on Saracens<\/a> in a top-of-the-table clash at the StoneX this Saturday, with a six-point buffer between the sides, while Northampton, who have a game in hand, are three points further back.<\/p>\n

With Leicester fourth in the Gallagher PREM table, a League and Cup double is still feasible.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I\u2019ve got the job to do here first. We made it to the (PREM) final last year, and I want to go and taste that again and go one more,\u201d added Hassell-Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cA trophy would be pretty cool. I\u2019ve yet to win a trophy and it would be great for some of the young boys to win it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his bleach-blonde hair, earring, painted finger nails and laidback demeanour, Ollie Hassell-Collins\u2019 signing by Leicester for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-418057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}