The tireless Elliot Daly is still raring to go for Wasps but the same can’t be said for so many of his Lions and England team-mates who have fallen by the wayside during a punishing 12 months

By this stage of a post-Lions season there are usually only two sorts of professional rugby players: the ones already lying in a knackered heap and those about to join them. Rare to the point of invisibility are Englishmen who trekked all the way around New Zealand last summer, finished fifth in the recent Six Nations and still have a glint in their eye. Elliot Daly is either a brilliant actor or a serious glutton for punishment.

Nor will there be much respite in the next two months. First there is the challenge of banishing the question marks hovering over Wasps and atoning for last year’s Premiership final disappointment against Exeter. Then there is England’s tour to South Africa which Daly, far from sidestepping, is massively keen to be involved in. Given he is also poised to open a cafe in Leamington Spa – complete with baristas tutored by the UK’s five-time latte art champion – the beachside hammock will have to wait.

RFU’s Steve Brown defends £195 tickets for England v All Blacks at Twickenham Read more

Nail all those goals successfully and the 25-year-old really will have had a special 12 months. Without his long-range kicking and all-round assurance on the wing, the Lions might not have earned their famous series draw against the All Blacks. In his last four Tests for England he has contributed five tries. As a cricketer talented enough to have represented England at under-15 level, he is the nearest thing British sport possesses to a modern-day Wilson of the Wizard.

All of which raises a question: how much more influential could he be if he saw the ball more often? England have generally employed Daly in a roving wing role but he initially broke into the national side as an outside-centre and reckons he could also prosper – “There’s more space and you get the ball a bit earlier than you do on the wing” – at full-back. With Bath’s Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson both set to miss the South African tour through injury and Manu Tuilagi’s participation still up in the air, the odds on the Croydon-born flier wearing either 13 or 15 in June must be shortening.

How fortunate, then, that the multitalented all-rounder – in his cricket days he used to bowl right-arm quick despite being left-footed and writing left-handed – feels fresher than many of his contemporaries. Injuries, most recently an open finger dislocation which pierced the skin, have allowed him to recharge slightly and rediscover the zest for life currently eluding one of two of his weary colleagues.

“You’re still training and trying to get fit but a couple of little niggles does allow you time to get yourself right and get back to firing on all cylinders. I’m ready and raring to go for whatever the end of season holds for us.”

Daly, in short, is no poster boy for those insisting future Lions tours from 2021 onwards must be trimmed from 10 to eight games to safeguard player welfare. “I really enjoyed the Lions tour. The length of it wasn’t an issue for me personally. I was involved in eight of the 10 games having played in the Premiership final the weekend before departure. For me it was quite good to keep focused on rugby.”

He is smart enough, nevertheless, to sense that even his buzzing energy levels will be impossible to sustain if the switching of summer Tests from June to July from 2020 is not satisfactorily dovetailed with the domestic fixture list. “I don’t think you can play more. We’re kind of playing all year round at the moment. It just needs to be clear because then we can plan for the future.”

Even his new caffeine-oriented sideline, it seems, is not going to divert Daly from his primary addiction. One day he fancies playing abroad, possibly in Super Rugby – “I would like to try and play in that kind of rugby but it would have to be at the right time” – but given he signed a new Wasps contract only last September it really would require a major implosion for him to abandon the team he has represented since he was a schoolboy. For all the current frustration caused by Wasps’ continuing lack of a permanent training base, the players’ desire for silverware remains undimmed. As Daly puts it: “This is where we said we wanted to be at the start of the season: in the top four chasing a semi-final.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elliot Daly in action for England. The wing is expected to be part of this summer’s tour to South Africa. Photograph: NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

A free-flowing home victory over the Saints on Sunday would also honour the clutch of established players – James Haskell, Danny Cipriani, Guy Thompson and Sam Jones – bidding farewell to the club this season. “There are a lot of characters leaving so giving them as good a send-off as possible is a big one for us,” says Daly.

What will he miss most about Haskell? “It’s a constant case of: ‘He’s not going to say that, is he? Oh, he’s just said it.’ He just doesn’t have an off-button. He says exactly what he thinks but says it with a smile. He’ll be a big loss for the squad.”

And Cipriani? At their best, Wasps attack with more thrilling verve than any other side in the country, with Daly’s acceleration complementing his fly-half’s rare vision. “The mindset he brings to attack is something we’ll keep when he leaves,” says Daly. “He’s very gifted in what he does and he knows what he wants to do to defenders. It’s definitely been helpful for me.”

Sign up for The Breakdown, our weekly rugby union email.

Another of his fleet-footed partners in crime, the quicksilver Willie le Roux, could soon be among the opposition when England fly south in June for a three-Test examination of their stamina and recently shaken confidence.

Daly is one of many who sense a Springbok side licking their lips at the prospect of piling into their visitors on home soil. “I reckon they’re going to be a handful in the summer,” he says.

On the flip side, with two Tests being staged at altitude, his bazooka of a left boot could do the Boks plenty of damage from distance. Assuming Eddie Jones’s side can shake off their Six Nations torpor, the trip would also help erase the memory of his only previous tour to South Africa with England Under-18s.

“We lost 2-1 in a best-of-three series which was very annoying. I think we had a kick to win it at the end and missed.” If anyone can help England and Wasps finish their endless winter in style, it is the inexhaustible Daly.

Elliot Daly was speaking on behalf of Land Rover, main club partner of Wasps. Follow @LandRoverRugby