MY LIFE IN RUGBY
THE FORMER ENGLAND, NORTHAMPTON AND WORCESTER FLANKER
TOM WOOD

Missing out on the England U18 Club XV, when I trialled a year early, lit a fire under me and was kind of the defining moment of my career because it made me even more determined to prove people wrong.
Living in Coventry and going to Woodlands School rather than at a Millfield or a Harrow, or wherever, meant I wasn’t really on the radar of the selectors. But after captaining the Midlands U18s against England Schools, I got a link into the Worcester academy and a foot in the door.
Academies are brilliant for so...