Hull FC star Luke Gale reveals motorway incident with ex-Castleford Tigers teammate Jacques O’Neill

To not realise that Castleford Tigers forward Jacques O’Neill had gone into the Love Island villa, you would probably be living under a rock.

The Cumbrian-born 23-year-old has swapped the Jungle life for the red hot sun in an exotic location to find love this summer, with the rugby league fraternity looking on with great interest.

Of course, O’Neill is Gemma Owen’s ex-boyfriend – and Gemma herself is the daughter of footballing hero Michael Owen – and he was seen on television screens on Sunday night as he entered the villa.

With the nuggety forward enjoying a stellar rise to the Tigers first-team, Castleford fans have been sad to see O’Neill go, particularly when someone with his drive and tenacity could have been vital in what has been a difficult season for the West Yorkshire side so far in 2022.

But, despite his good looks, former teammate Luke Gale jokes that O’Neill has little in terms of brains.

“His first full week in training, he doesn’t drive or anything like that. He’s living in Beeston with one of the conditioners,” Gale explained on Proper Sport.

“He says to Paul McShane, who lives in Belle Isle, can he get a lift. Paul says ‘yeah you’ll have to be at mine for eight in the morning’.

“He says he’ll cycle up, set off at 7 and be at his for 8. He rings Paul back three hours later and says there’s one problem, he doesn’t have a bike!” Gale laughed.

But, if getting there was a problem, getting home proved much more of a challenge!

“He gets dropped off and he’s driving home from Belle Isle to Beeston. He gets his sat nav on his phone as if he’s in the car and he’s driving and for some reason he facetimes Macca and says ‘Paul I’m lost, I’m on the M621 on a bike!’” Gale continued.

“He was driving the wrong way down the motorway on a bicycle!

“Honestly, he got the sat nav as he was in a car and he’s just gone on the hard shoulder, he said cars were beeping at him and everything.”