WHEN Jonny May scored a sensational individual try against New Zealand in November; he seemed nailed on to not only make September’s World Cup squad but also enter the tournament as England’s first choice wing, writes Will Kelleher.

Fast forward six months and it’s a very different story altogether.

After starting the Six Nations games against Wales and Italy the Gloucester man was dropped for the final three matches of the tournament in favour of Exeter’s Jack Nowell.

He now faces an anxious wait during the final few months of the season, knowing he must impress England boss Stuart Lancaster again if he’s to fulfil his ambitions of playing at a home World Cup.

One man who has trained and played alongside him and has seen how good May is first hand is England’s premier full back Mike Brown.

And the Harlequins No.15 is convinced May will bounce back from his Six Nations disappointment, pointing to the positive attitude he had in England training at Pennyhill Park in the final weeks of the tournament.

“Jonny just has to keep working hard like he has been doing,” said Brown, speaking at the Rosslyn Park HSBC National Schools Sevens – the world’s largest schools rugby tournament.

“He has shown great attitude up until he got dropped and then from there he showed an even better attitude when he came back into camp from being dropped.

“Obviously it’s a massive disappointment, we’ve all been there. You can go into your shell or be a bit grumpy but he hasn’t shown that at all which is great to see.

“He’s obviously a world class player, just look at what he did to New Zealand. It’s all to play for. It’s just one of those things. They just wanted to put different people in. But if he keeps working hard, he’ll be back there.”

England rugby union player Mike Brown was speaking on behalf of HSBC at the Rosslyn Park HSBC National Schools Sevens where he helped run HSBC coaching clinics for schools during the tournament.