England and Leicester Tigers winger Ollie Hassell-Collins sees it as his job to stand out.
And he takes the role seriously.
You can tell by just looking at his fingernails.
When with England, they are painted with little St George’s crosses, and when suiting up for the Tigers for the first time it was all about the red, green and white.
What started with nail varnish to discourage him from chewing his nails has become a way for the 24-year-old to show that there is more to him than the 192cm and 104kg of explosive talent.
“People know what they will get with me,” Hassell-Collins told BBC Radio Leicester.
“It kind of started with biting my nails quite badly and the missus painting them with a clear varnish. Then it was like, why not add some colour, a bit of spice to it?
“Then it grew from there. It started with the thumb and pinkie, then thumb, pinkie and middle finger and now it’s all the fingers.
“It is something different and another way of expressing myself really.”
And this from a player whose blond locks already make for an eye-catching display whenever he bobs, weaves, breaks and blasts around the field with ball in hand.
While Leicester Tigers’ opening-day Premiership defeat at Bristol Bears failed to produce many of those moments, Hassell-Collins has made an early impression on the East Midlands club with some standout performances during the opening group games of the Premiership Rugby Cup.
Recruiting the prolific winger, who has earned two England caps, was among Tigers’ head coach Dan McKellar’s earliest decisions when appointed in February.
When Hassell-Collins’ departure from London Irish was announced in March, he was praised as both player and person.
Getting the crowd on their feet
Scoring almost 50 tries in just over senior 100 appearances for a club – one he first joined as an academy player – is testament to what he did for them on the pitch.
“You hear the cheers when you make a line break or score a try,” Hassell-Collins said of generating a crowd reaction with his performances.
“That is the other side of my role as a winger – get the crowd on their feet, get them excited.
“To do that it’s about getting ball in hand, as I did at Newcastle [in the Premiership Rugby Cup]. I got lot of touches, a lot of good touches as well, and I want to replicate that and get even more.”
His time at London Irish ended with the Exiles just missing out on the Premiership play-offs last season.
It was a near miss that came just weeks before the club went into administration and were expelled from the competition.
Tigers managed a top four finish, but were unable to go on and defend their Premiership title.
It is Leicester’s pedigree for success – with 11 Premiership crowns, and two European Cups – that compelled him to make the move to Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
And it is that hunt for silverware that he is focused on, despite the desire to fight his way back into the England side for the next Six Nations after missing out on World Cup selection.
“That is obviously what every England player wants to go for, so of course it’s [the Six Nations] in my sights,” Hassell-Collins said.
“The World Cup is going on and they have got their squad and are going great at the moment, but for me, my focus is on this Leicester team, getting touches, getting tries and showing what I can do.
“It it come, it comes. Then great, I’ll be over the moon. If not I will keep putting my head down and working hard.
“I want to win here. That is why I came here, I want to win something, a Champions Cup, Premiership, Premiership Cup, anything.”
