My Life in Rugby with Dan Norton
The former Great Britain and England Sevens star and Gloucester, Bristol, Moseley and London Irish 15s winger talks about his career
Even at the age of nine, when I first started playing rugby down at Gloucester Spartans, my dad's club, I didn't see the need to run into people when you could run around them and not get hurt. I was always one of the quicker players on the team and the fear of getting tackled probably added an extra yard to my pace!
I also played for another club in Gloucester called Brockworth and it was from there that I went to Hartpury and things really took off. As someone who loved being active and had so much energy, a sports environment like that was perfect for me.
In my first year at Uni, we won the BUCS title by beating UWIC at Twickenham, and in my second year I got a contract to join the Gloucester academy, and was promptly loaned out to Moseley. Me and Henry Trinder, Jack Adams, James Bailey, Mark Foster would go up on a Tuesday and a Thursday, having played for the Uni and gone out for a Wednesday night session in between.
It was awesome to be involved with Moseley, a proper old-school club. We won the EDF Trophy, beating Leeds, which was another opportunity to play at Twickenham and I never fail to remind my Leeds friends, Tom Biggs, who is currently coaching out in China with me, and Rob Vickerman, about it.
With so much quality in the Gloucester squad, I knew breaking into the first team would be tough so when an opportunity to join Bristol came up, I decided to take it. Playing at the ‘Mem' as a 21-year-old was an amazing experience, I loved the fans and the whole experience, but the club cut wages in half in the second year after we lost to Exeter in the Championship final.
That's when sevens really took over for me. It suited me, and I loved the opportunity to go around the world, play in the sun, dodging tackles and the like. It was an amazing experience and I wouldn't have been the person that I am today if I hadn't got that opportunity.
Ben Ryan brought in a full-time contracted programme, there was 12 of us training in the week. We were kind of one of the first teams to go down that route and it was awesome time to be involved because sevens was really growing and we had a couple of really successful periods. My World Series debut came in Wellington in 2009. For a Gloucester boy, travelling to the other side of the world and seeing things like all the ships in the shipping lane in Singapore was an amazing experience in itself. I was in a squad with a lot of experienced players so I didn't play much but being in that tournament and playing in a packed-out stadium in Wellington, with 50,000 people inside, mostly in fancy dress, was special. To then get to the final and win the final after being 19 points down, with Isoa Damudamu scoring after the buzzer at the end, was a memory I will never forget.
From there, it was on to San Diego for my second tournament. I remember Ben Gollings was chasing Santi Gomez Cora for the Series' try-scoring record – he was on about 130 tries and I was in awe of the numbers. Never for a second did I assume that I would have an opportunity to break the record myself one day.
Unperturbed by losing to Argentina in the final, we had a very good night out. I was under-age, I was 20 and you had to be 21 in America to drink alcohol, and the boys thought it would be funny to get me to use Damudamu's ID. It was never going to work as we were different ages and looked totally different but it was still a big night though for all concerned, Back on the team bus, Ben Gollings was play fighting with the team physio and split his head wide open, and at the same time, Ben Ryan was wrestling his way off the bus because he refused to call it a night.
The last we saw of him was him running down the street. We later found out that he got a taxi across the border to Mexico and went to a bar before sobering up and heading back to the hotel for breakfast. Those first couple of tournaments were a mental introduction to sevens life.
Even though you are not defined by the wins and the highs are really cool – Iplayed in 92 tournaments and won eight – there is a lot of time in between when there are ups and downs. But I think the biggest thing I take away from the sport is the actual connection of people, as boring as it sounds, and the journey we all went on as a close-knit group.
The Olympics was different, on so many counts, Firstly, I count my lucky stars that I actually went to Rio because the selection process for GB was brutal – 30 of us going for 13 spots. As much as it felt terrible to lose the final, to come away with a medal was something very special after so little preparation time together and a real cherry on the cake of what was a great experience. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bradley Wiggins and having drinks with him in Brazil was pretty cool and for my dad to see me play in the Olympics at first hand was amazing.
The two years after Rio were incredible, too. We (England) hit four finals in 2016/17 and we won two, including beating South Africa in South Africa in the final play. The passion, the energy, the buzz … it was insane. As an added bonus, around 40 guys from Spartans were in the crowd, including my dad, as they were on tour there at the time. It added to the occasion having so many familiar faces who had seen my rise through the junior ranks into men's rugby. The year 2018 was incredible as well. We won bronze at the Commonwealth Games and silver at the World Cup and, in the same year, I had a child and got married, as quite a few of us did. To explore Sam Francisco was amazing in itself but on the pitch, the win against USA, with Tom Mitchell's crossfield kick for Phil Burgess will live with me forever. I've seen that clip so many times over the last few weeks, it brings me so much happiness. Unfortunately, again, New Zealand were the better team. As a whole, I am happy with my career but I wasn't happy with some of the games we played against New Zealand. We lost some really close games and I will always be begrudging of some of the pivotal moments that didn't go our way. By the same token, Kurt Baker, Tim Mikkelson, DJ Forbes and the rest, they are guys who withstand the pressure in those ‘big balls' moments.
When I left Bristol I fell out of love with 15s and fell in love with sevens. But around 2014/15, when Henry Trinder, Charlie Sharples, Jonny May, Dave Lewis – those guys who I'd been in the academy with – starting doing really well at Gloucester and guys I'd been in the England U20s setup were doing well, I did kind of wonder whether I'd have been able to do likewise had things at Bristol worked out differently. At least I had another crack at 15s later on, during a short break from sevens, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at London Irish although it would have been nicer to have had longer to show what I could do. I was a bit frustrated with the way I played and wasn't able to show my best.
Frustrated by not getting a contract after the Tokyo Olympics, I was happy to retire. But it wasn't long before I missed the challenge and I wanted to go back. At Christmas, I had conversations with the England coaches and my aim was to try and finish the 2022 Series, go to the Commonwealth Games and a third World Cup. It didn't work out quite the way I hoped, but at least I got to say goodbye and play in the two final tournaments. In the end, I was one tournament away from matching Rodders' (James Rodwell) appearance record for England. I reckon he was in Rocky (Tony Roques) and Charlie Hayter's ears saying, ‘I think he's done boys, I think he's done'!
As I look back on my career, I'm fortunate to of created some incredible memories and shared some special moments on and off the field doing something I love. I'd like to thank everyone for the support they've shown me over the years and now it's onto the next challenge – to try and get China qualified for the Olympics.
