With a home World Cup now just 15 months away, Leicester flanker Jamie Gibson is mindful a big season for the Tigers could propel him into Stuart Lancaster’s England thinking.
Lancaster has a host of flanker options available to him, with captain Chris Robshaw, Tom Wood, James Haskell, Tom Croft and Matt Kvesic all vying for inclusion.
Former London Irish forward Gibson, 23, started 23 games for Leicester last season – his first with the club – and was one of Richard Cockerill’s star turns at home and abroad.
With Premiership clubs now returning for pre-season preparations, Gibson knows he must enjoy a fast start with Leicester if he’s to push his way into the reckoning for the autumn and the RBS 6 Nations.
He was handed a spot in the England squad for the Barbarians game at the end of last season and after that experience ended on a stretcher, after a sharp blow to the head, Gibson is dreaming of much more this year.
“That was my fifth season in total and to come to a club with such history and ambition and to play so many games was the highlight of my career,” he told the Leicester Mercury.
“It was more than I could have hoped and dreamed of. I will knuckle down and work hard and see if it can happen again.
“It was good to be involved with the England squad at the end of the season. It ended frustratingly but it is good to work with people from different clubs with different ideas.
“If we can be a bit tighter in certain areas, we can do well and have confidence because we are a strong squad with some good new players coming in. There is good strength in every position and a lot of blokes are fully fit too.”
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