It was late one evening at the end of January when Gloucester lock Arthur Clark’s phone rang out of the blue with a call-up to the England pre-Six Nations training camp.
Just over 12 hours later, the uncapped Clark was on a plane to the England base in Girona, Spain, where he spent almost two weeks with the squad before the first Test against Ireland.
But on the final day in a training session Clark, felt his foot go under a ruck and a scan later revealed he had fractured a bone, ruling him out of any potential game time during the tournament.
Despite the disappointment, the experience has left the 23-year-old “more hungry” than ever.
“I think I was always pushing and trying to train hard and do the best I could, and was just happy to see what happened,” Clark told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
“Even to be part of the team was amazing and it was totally unexpected for me, especially when I got the call, but I was definitely ready to ramp up and push in to try and get into the 23. But things didn’t go that way.”
