There’s something quite entertaining about Jonny May. Ahead of the opening weekend of the Six Nations, the England wing turned up for his media duties sporting a black eye and a bandaged head. Ahead of this weekend’s clash with Italy, he arrived with his right arm cut open and a bruising to the side of his face.

His head coach, Eddie Jones, often laughs when asked about him and returns the phrase “we just tell him to run, mate”. That’s not the case anymore though, as on Friday Jones revealed what he is demanding from the Gloucester wing.

“Tries and plenty of them,” came the response. In 24 Tests, May has scored eight tries, a record that doesn’t quite match up to Anthony Watson – the man who failed to recover from injury in time to face Italy and duly allow May to return to the starting XV – or Jack Nowell.

Interestingly, May’s have all come at home, at Twickenham Stadium, where he starts on Sunday with a new method to bring the best out of him.

“I made him have a shave last night as he had a thick beard and it made him look slow. He’s quick now,” added Jones, his mischievous smile clear for all to see. But as he sits down, May reveals Jones was indeed telling the truth.

May explains: “I just went and got my hair cut yesterday. I didn’t have much of a beard but he just went ‘I think you’ll look sharper with a shave, go and have a shave’. I was like ‘alright’.

“He’s a pretty unpredictable guy. It’s all funny isn’t it? If says have a shave then I’ll have a shave.”

May brushes the question off when he’s asked if he ever thought about disobeying Jones, although the head coach’s response to the same question of “he wouldn’t” was said with no joking intended. But all of this has an end game. For a man of May’s pace, he should have more international tries to his name.

“I want to go out there and play the best I can,” May said. “I hope I get a couple of opportunities and it is my job to finish them off if I do. If not, I will have to chase kicks, talk well in defence, have a good all-round game and work really hard.”

There’s some sympathy when it comes to his try record given that May has rarely been given a solid run in the starting XV. After starting against France, May was relegated to the replacements’ bench for the win over Wales a fortnight ago. The 26-year-old started all four autumn internationals last year, but before that hadn’t played for his country since the 2015 Rugby World Cup due to serious injury, and he was in-and-out of the squad during Stuart Lancaster’s reign.

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However, one thing Jones is pushing to his players is that being left out of the starting XV does not mean you are left out of the squad. His “finishers”, those he calls on from the replacements’ bench to win games, have done just that over the last two matches, and May admits it’s the coach’s words that are filling the players with pride, even if they find themselves watching from the sidelines.

“He [Jones] picks the team, he doesn’t need to justify what he’s doing to me but I’m just trying to get better and when he says you’re a finisher, that’s equally as important,” he said. “I know that and we all buy into that because it is, it’s shown in the games we’ve played that the finishers are important, as important as the starters in terms of having to know their detail to come on and add to the game. So it really is a 23-man effort.

May went into the Six Nations a little worse for wear after England's notoriously physical training sessions (Getty)

“It’s great, to be called a finisher gives you pride in that and the boys on the bench are proud to be a finisher. People want to be a part of this team, I’m desperate to be a part of it and whether you’re a starter or a finisher you want to be in the team and get better and help everyone.

“Obviously it’s huge to start. I’m pleased to be starting, but you just do what you’re told and do it the best you can really. I said you’re proud to be a starter, you’re proud to be a finisher, you want to be a part of this team no matter how.”