Dan Norton - Wing/ Utility Back -
Born 1988 (22 March) England Academy Player dual registered to play for
both Gloucester and Moseley.
Dan
starred for Gloucester in the Middlesex 7s in 2007/08 season. He was a student at Hartpury College and part of their BUSA winning side.
Dan was also a key player in the Hartpury College side that won the EDF
Junior Vase in 2007 trouncing Billericay 72-12 in the final. He represented England U18s in the 2006/07 season.
Selected for England's second string sevens squad, the Samurai, for the
Dubai sevens in 2007 and the first string in 2009 in San Diego and
Wellington where they celebrated their first tournament win when Ben
Gollings kicked England to a 19-17 victory over New Zealand.
In 2008 he was part of England's RBS
Six Nations U20 Grand Slam winning team, Making his debut against Wales
off the bench, starting against France and also featured as a
replacement against Italy and Ireland.
Described by Allan
Lewis (Hartpury Rugby Academy Director and former Moseley coach) as having
“outstanding pace and is a very naturally gifted runner. Dan has worked
exceptionally hard and deserves his chance”.
Included in the Birmingham Post's Midlands
Select XV after 9 tries in 17 appearances in the 2007/08 and again in
2008/09 season.
Height: 1.82m
Weight: 79kg
Programme Profile - Dan Norton -
January 2009
 Dan
Norton is the first of the five England Academy dual registered players
to be profiled by Moseley’s communications team. The others are Jack
Adams, Charlie Sharples, Jack Forster, Henry Trinder, Dan Williams. They
have all made a significant contribution to Moseley’s performance this
season and have been made very welcome at Billesley Common by both the
other players and the members of the Club.
Dan Norton is a winger, who in spite of his youth (he is not 21 until
March) has a great deal of rugby experience under his belt, and is in
the England and Gloucester Academies as well as playing for Moseley.
Bearing in mind Dan is also a full time student of Sport Business
Management at Hartpury College, he is a very busy young man indeed.
He is a Gloucestershire man through and through, as is his girlfriend
Samantha, who is also a student with him. He went to Brockworth
Enterprise School before moving on to Hartpury. Dan’s junior rugby clubs
in the Gloucester area, were Spartans and Brockworth, from where he
moved into the England Academy based at Gloucester at the start of
season 2007-08.
Hartpury College is a most interesting and well respected educational
establishment. It is an outstanding provider of land-based sports and
related courses and its rugby department has strong links with the
city’s rugby club, whose Premiership squad train at the college every
day.
Dan’s rugby development has also been overseen by the coaching staff of
the England Academy who direct a personal development programme, that is
geared primarily to ensuring that his capacities and abilities as a
rugby player are maximised.
He has played for the England U18 and U20 sides, and the next step up
for him would be to be included in the England Sevens squad. The
potential of players in the Academy are assessed under four main
categories: skills and elements of competence, fitness, tactical and
game awareness and personal attitudes.
In all this, Dan feels that his time on loan to Moseley is invaluable,
as it is providing him with all important game time at a high level.
Overall he feels that the association has gone well, except for the
chore of driving up and down the M5!
Given the luxury of resources at Gloucester (individual specialist
coaches for the forwards and the backs and for attacking and defensive
tactics) and the time available to practice, Dan is full of admiration
for what Moseley’s coaches and players achieve in two training sessions
per week
One can see that it leaves Dan little time for anything other than
Samantha, socialising and his play station console He is clearly a young
player to follow as his rugby career develops In the meantime we hope he
continues to score more tries for Moseley!
|