Ollie Hassell

London Irish could be Premiership champions in just over a month, although they have a daunting to-do list, starting with securing fourth place, which may need wins over Saracens away on Sunday and Exeter a fortnight later.

For Ollie Hassell-Collins, Irish's newly-capped England wing, there is an added emphasis as he is leaving for Leicester Tigers in the summer.

"I’ve been at Irish for a long time, I love the club and it's very special to me," the 24-year-old tells i. "It's everyone's dream to finish on a high – look at Chris Ashton scoring a hat-trick of tries and getting the Premiership 100 last week."

Irish are emboldened by having beaten Sale and Northampton in Brentford last month, and they did the same to Saracens in December. Gradually the team previously defined by scoring and conceding barrel-loads of tries have eked out just enough wins to be in the play-off hunt. A three-week break has recharged the batteries.

Behind the scenes, the club is carrying debt, and publicly looking for investors, and there was talk of a possible delay to the March wages.

But Hassell-Collins says: "That was all good. It's not the players’ position – we know we’re safe, it hasn't impacted us at all, really. No one's worried about that."

Hassell-Collins has yet to meet Leicester's incoming head coach Dan McKellar, but he has checked out a new property in Market Harborough, and his house in Hampshire is on the market.

The Tigers, who will be in the play-offs, will be getting a talent who has grabbed headlines in the Premiership for the last four seasons: a 6ft 4ins powerhouse who can skittle opponents in a straight line, or veer infield, with the ball cradled in his left hand, and a good left foot to add to the options. He has nine league tries this season and consistently featured in the charts clean breaks.

England, thus far, has been a different story. Hassell-Collins first featured in an Eddie Jones training squad in 2021, but he won his first caps in the opening two matches of this year's Six Nations under Steve Borthwick, against Scotland and Italy at Twickenham. At a time of flux, shining straight away was not easy, and the glare of glory fell instead on his opposite number, Scotland's Duhan van der Merwe, who scored a weaving, surging try for the ages.

"Yeah, of course I wish that was me," says Hassell-Collins, smiling on a Zoom screen. "That was a hell of a try, and I look at it like ‘yeah, I want to go score a try like that this weekend’, or I want to set someone up to do that.

"I definitely want more [with England]. I spoke to the coaches, I got what I needed out of them and I have a plan so that whenever I do pull on the jersey again, hopefully, I know what I need to do to get on the ball and express myself. It's getting connected, whether that's with the No 10 or 12, just being more confident, demanding the ball. I feel like I do that at Irish, but a Test is another level. I think it will come."

Somewhere along the line, Hassell-Collins has been blessed with an open outlook. His mum Claire is a hairdresser, dad Neil is an IT consultant and former prop and coach at Newbury RFC, where Ollie came through to join London Irish's academy eight years ago. The academy backs coach James Lightfoot-Brown said in a tribute for his 100th London Irish appearance in March: "He is doing what he was put on the planet to do."

So Hassell-Collins is one to follow – in every sense. He has just posted his own work on YouTube, of a day-in-the-life travelogue of his recent holiday in Egypt: camels and pyramids and local snacks.

"My most viral Tiktok was a nacho table – I put some tin foil all over the table, got nachos in a square, got some mince and cheese and a load of dips in the middle. That got a few million [views]. My girlfriend loves that stuff as well."

Speaking of Eloise, we must come to the painted fingernails: Hassell-Collins was due to get his latest set done on Friday. "Green and white, and I might get a shamrock on one of them. I’ll look on Pinterest for some inspiration."

And how did that start? "I couldn't stop biting my nails – that was the problem. I tried the taste stuff you put on, but it was getting in my food.

OHC in for @londonirish ☘️@OHassellcollins dives over for the visitors to extend their lead ⚡️Watch #NEWvLIR live on PRTV 💻#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/4bCE7nUGKO

"So I started painting them clear, and then I put a bit of colour on them, first my pinky finger, and then it went pinky and thumb for a little bit. Then it went pinky, middle, thumb. Then it turned to all fingers. My girlfriend has all the kit, she used to paint people's nails at uni for extra money.

"Everyone expects things like that from me. It's about the individual wanting to put themselves out there. I’m happy to talk about my life whereas other players probably aren't."

Hence we have heard about Hassell-Collins taking his cats for walks (essentially so no one steals them) and on holiday, and his love of Harry Potter (he has a tattoo of a Golden Snitch). He has worked as a swimming-pool lifeguard, and campaigned for cancer research.

"There's a lot of rugby fans and a lot of London Irish fans and a lot of my fans, and they’re very interested in what we do in our day-to-day lives and I think it's quite cool," he says. "I look at what a footballer or a basketball player is doing, or what they’re wearing, and for me it's doing that for all my followers. I’m not just a rugby player; this is me. It is a massive thing, especially with a career so short.

"Building that profile is what's going to set you up after rugby. I go to the RPA [players’ association] rep and say I enjoy doing this and can you find me a course, and all that stuff goes into building the brand. You have got to get a network and meet people, to be in a good spot after rugby."