A week ahead of the seventh and penultimate leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series in London Sport.co.uk were invited down to Twickenham Stadium along with other venerable media folk to put the England Sevens team through their paces.
Ben Ryan, the England coach, proudly introduced us to his squad in the salubrious surroundings of the England changing room, hailing while simultaneously teasing the precocious talents of two men in particular before leading us out onto the hallowed turf of Rugby HQ.
The two individuals were Dan Caprice – a 21-year-old speed merchant from Kent with dancing feet and a wide Cheshire cat-like smile – and Dan Norton – an equally rambunctious character and fast-paced player from Gloucester of 23 years – who have taken the 2010-11 World Series by storm.
England currently lie second in the standings, with one leg remaining at Murrayfield to come after this weekend, and have a 13 point deficit from tournament leaders New Zealand to overcome. Nevertheless, a tournament win in Dubai, as well as final appearances in South Africa, New Zealand and the renowned Hong Kong point to a tremendous campaign to date.
With three wins apiece for England and New Zealand in London in the past decade (the last in 2009 for Ryan’s team) the two Dans will be aware of the challenge they face yet have every confidence of reigning in the Kiwis and claiming England’s first ever overall victory.
Before we headed out onto the pitch there was a word from Roger Uttley, a member of the 1974 Lions squad that went undefeated in South Africa and former captain and later manager of England team. Uttley was speaking as an ambassador for the Prostate Cancer Charity who generously organised the day.
He said: “Some of you may already know, but my friend and former teammate Andy Ripley died from prostate cancer in June last year. He was a beast of a man, which just goes to show that however fit you are, there is always something than can get at you. His decision to speak openly about his battle has encouraged the rugby world to be more aware of this disease.”
With those sombre words in mind the media and players alike spilled out onto the old Cabbage Patch for a warm-up, training drills and ultimately a match against the best England had to offer. To put it simply, for roughly an hour and a half, we were absolutely schooled.
Seen up close and personal it is mystifying to think these players, from the power-houses of the 103kg Tom Powell, skilful tacticians of all-time Sevens record points scorer Ben Gollings, to the indefatigable work-horses such as scrum half John Brake could ever be stopped. The pace, trickery and power was phenomenal. And we were only playing touch!
After a long shower, good square meal and time to come to my senses I sat down with the two Dans in row Z overlooking the awe-inspiring 80,000 capacity arena for a debrief.
Deadly on the field and evidently jokers off it we discussed the merits of Sevens compared to the XVs game, the questionable approaches Ryan has implemented on his squad, their personal ambitions and their unrelenting competitiveness with each other.
But first we attempted to learn a bit more about a sport that, having been drafted onto the sports roster for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, will come increasingly under the spotlight in the coming years.
Vital statistics:
Full name: Daniel Jonathan Caprice
Aka: DC
DoB: 20 October 1989
Place of birth: Kent
Position: Utility back
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 82kg
Squad: England Sevens
Previous teams: Saracens, Blackheath
IRB World Series: 14 events
2010-11 World Series tries: 9
Hobbies: The ukulele, expression dancing, especially with room-mate Nick Royle, dominating the long jump
Rugby World Cup or Olympic Sevens: “You could maybe do both you know. I’m going to try to get both in. I think I’ll do the Olympics and then focus on the World Cup.”
Full name: Daniel John Norton
Aka: Strawberry (after his father Aubrey)
DoB: 22 March 1988
Place of birth: Gloucester
Position: Fullback, Wing
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 82kg
Squad: Bristol Rugby
Previous teams: Gloucester, Moseley
IRB World Series: 18 events
2010-11 World Series tries: 20
Hobbies: Attempting the “long-hop” aka long jump, Twitter, improving his GPS score, winning the U20 Grand Slam Six Nations with England in 2008
Rugby World Cup or Olympic Sevens: “If I had the choice…I wouldn’t know what to do. I’d probably cut both arms off!”
Sport.co.uk's Sam Rider graces Twickenham's hallowed turf...
Hello Dan. Hello Dan. Great to see you guys in action today and made to feel distinctly slow and rubbish. But that’s my issue. So, first off, to identify who is who…
Caprice: Hello [In a breezy South East accent]. I’m the one with the deep voice.
Norton: My voice is quite high-pitch…hello.
Caprice: [Mocking Norton speaking in a slightly nasal West Country voice] Hello…
Norton: Shut up.
The England Sevens team
First of all let’s look at the team, 2nd place behind a formidable New Zealand. How do you rate this current England Sevens team compared to previous ones you’ve been involved in?
Caprice: I’d say man-for-man it’s the best team I’ve played in. It’s my third season now and the fact we’ve kept the same team throughout the season, only used 15 players, that’s helped a lot to gel a bit more rather than other years when we were chopping and changing.
Norton: Before it was XVs players trying to play sevens but now we’ve tried to specialise more. We’re now in an environment where we train more together and that’s helped quite a lot as well.
I noticed your coach Ben Ryan borrowing techniques from Barcelona FC with their keep-ball drills and from cricket with their slip catching in the warm up. So what does he bring to the squad?
Norton: He has quite a wide view of the sport in general. He likes to incorporate other aspects that benefit us with handling, hand-eye coordination and motor skills.
Caprice: He’s very inn-ov-at-tive…
Norton: [Laughing] Really…?
Caprice: Innovative [don’t worry Dan we’ll smooth that out when we publish this] as a coach.
Are there any obscure and innovative techniques Ryan has brought in which you haven’t seen anywhere else?
Caprice: Erm…we did some stuff with vests…
Norton: [Laughing] Yeah, compression vests.
Caprice: I didn’t wear one!
Norton: We wore these things that were a bit like a corset. They went over your diaphragm and were quite tight so they restricted your breathing when you warm up and keep your breathing quite shallow. Then when you take them off in the changing room before the match you breath far deeper and your lungs expand that bit more. He also had these massive suits…
Caprice: They were ridiculous!
Norton: They were kind of like tin foil suits. Literally tin foil suits. You were supposed to wear them on the sidelines but you basically looked like an idiot.
Caprice: They were like a space suit.
Norton: They were to keep your core temperature up when you’re on the sideline. Some things worked really well but others we tried, agreed we looked like idiots and they didn’t work, and then ditched them.
Caprice: We’ve also had beetroot juice…
Norton: Eurgh!
Caprice: We had it before we play. It supposedly increases your blood flow to your muscles but it’s absolutely horrible. They make us take that. He tries, bless him.
Norton: But he’s got a great rugby brain and works hard. He’s come in over the last couple years and changed the setup and I think it’s worked really well so far…I love him…I love you Ben Ryan! Are you listening?
How instrumental is your captain Ben Gollings?
Norton: Not very…No you can see every time he plays that he brings such a wealth of experience to the team. He’s a calm head and we have struggled at times when he hasn’t been playing. He’s just a world-class player and shown that over the last 10 years.
Opposition
Are there any other players who can rival your speed and acceleration? Who are the trickiest opponents?
Norton: I don’t like the long, tall players with long arms.
Caprice: The tall players in our team like Rodders [James Rodwell] won’t like a short stepper. He won’t like a Cecil Afrika [RSA], Tomasi Cama [NZL]. Because I’m shorter I don’t like the ones with the long, gangly arms. Norts weights 9stone [laughing at Norton’s indignation] so he doesn’t like the heavier players.
Norton: There’s someone for everybody really. The main players like Cama and Afrika have done pretty well this year because they’re hot steppers and have got great gas.
XVs v Sevens
Do you think you could all seamlessly slip back into the XVs game?
Norton: I’ve been playing for Bristol Rugby this year and hopefully next year I’ll play a bit more XVs as well. I don’t find it that difficult. It benefits outside backs where one-on-one skills, your evading skills, and tackling are all in there anyway so I think it helps everybody to be honest.
Caprice: I definitely think it is position dependent. You can’t have a prop playing sevens [despite the valiant attempt from one of the more robustly formed player from the media].
Norton: It’s good for the back row. We don’t have props but we have back rows and backs. It gets them used to handling the ball, hitting rucks well, passing and catching and beating people so it benefits those guys.
Caprice: It magnifies your skill. So if you can’t beat someone on a one-on-one it will show more on a sevens pitch rather than a XVs pitch. If you can’t tackle or pass off your left and right hand it will show…[Caprice cracks up].
Norton: You might notice I only score on the left-hand side because DC can’t pass off his left hand. I’m just throwing it out there.
Do you tend to work in tandem or do you stay as far apart as possible on the pitch?
Caprice: I try to stay away from him, yeah.
Norton: I think we have done pretty well together when we have played. He gives me decent ball whenever he does pass it to my hands and obviously creates space and makes it easier for both of us.
In terms of the XVs players coming across, with the likes of Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Joe Simpson, how would they fare in the sevens set up?
Caprice: I played with Blackheath a season after Joe Simpson [now with London Wasps] was there on loan. I heard he used to rock up, put his boots on just before the warm up and go out and score three tries. He wasn’t even trying at all, just a class above everyone. He did really well there. They loved him at Blackheath. A lot of players will come through the sevens system and go onto play at international level. Sevens is a good path it seems.
Norton: Quite a few of them have come through the sevens set up so you can see how their skills are transferable.
Caprice: It is hard to be thrown in from XVs to sevens though. The skills do cross over but the positioning is something you need to learn.
Sport.co.uk's Sam Rider at the centre of proceedings...
Sevens in the Olympics
Since the decision in October 2009 to include rugby sevens on the roster of Olympic sports from the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro have you noticed a change in the sport?
Norton: There’s been a bit more hype about it.
Caprice: There’s been more interest but you don’t get treated like a celebrity or anything like that. There’s more coverage but I think this is just the start. In the next couple of years you will see it really begin to kick on.
So when the 2016 Games come around you will both still be fairly young…
Norton: [Answering immediately] I’ll be 28 by then.
Caprice: I’ll be 26 [it’s clearly something they’ve thought about].
Norton: Gollngs will be 45 by then. He’ll probably be there throwing himself about.
So in that sense, what would you rather be in: the World Cup final or playing for the gold in the Olympics?
Norton: We had a taste of the Commonwealth Games back in October [where England reached the semi-final before being knocked out by New Zealand and beaten by South Africa to the bronze medal]. Even that on the biggest day and the Olympics, it is one of the biggest multi-sport events you can be involved in.
Caprice: You can’t get bigger than the Olympics.
Norton: If I had the choice…I wouldn’t know what to do. I’d probably cut both arms off!
Caprice: [Laughing] Neither. Both are massive aren’t they? The Olympics are worldwide. They’re the biggest sports event…but I don’t know.
Norton: I’m going to sit on the fence on that one.
Let me rephrase: would you rather win the Webb Ellis Cup and call yourself a World Cup winner or win a gold in the Sevens and call yourself an Olympic gold medallist?
Caprice: That’s so tough.
Norton: And be knighted…[perhaps letting his imagination run away with him].
Caprice: You could maybe do both you know. I’m going to try to get both in. I think I’ll do the Olympics and then focus on the World Cup…
Norton: Oh are you now? Yeah, why not, me too. I’ll probably do both as well.
Caprice: It all depends personally.
Norton: For me it all depends on the next two years. If stay with sevens over the next two years I’ll aim to play sevens in 2016. If not then I don’t know.
Caprice: I’d take either though. I wouldn’t mind which.
Norton: Go on then, give me one!
In athletics one of you has a bit of history dominating in the long jump.
Caprice: I’m the dominator.
Norton: No, negative. I’m sure if we had a long hop now…
Caprice: He thinks he could beat me at long jump even though he’s never done it.
Norton: I did. I did it at school. So what was your PB?
Caprice: I did 6.20 metres when I was 16 [the current record stands at 8.95 metres achieved in 1991 by USA’s Mike Powell].
Norton: So did I.
Caprice: When did you do that?
Norton: YES I DID! Well maybe 6.10 metres. I swear on my life, 110 per cent.
Caprice: Ok, ok.
Norton: You don’t believe me! YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME!
Caprice: Norts is more of a 15000 metre kind of build.
Norton: [Coming to his senses] In all fairness DC would probably be good now but if we had a long-off now it would be pretty close. Do you not think so? I’ll show you later.
I think you should make it official. There’s time to make it onto the team for 2012 and give Greg Rutherford a run for his money.
Norton: Well I think I might have a go at that as well to be honest.
Norton v Caprice
You are both clearly very competitive, so who’s quicker and who’s got the better step?
Caprice: Me.
Norton: Well, clearly not. How many times have I “wheelesed” you?
Caprice: Never.
Norton: Child please. Child please. This guy here is more of a 20-30 metre man. After that peeeewwwww…nothing. I on the other hand am more of a 30-40 man.
Caprice: Norts is more of a 100m man.
Norton: No I’m not. Too far.
Caprice: Ok, he’s a 60m, I’m a 40m. Although I did step him in training.
Norton: I’ve gassed you many a time. I have, I have. Scored more tries than you…
I was wondering when that would come up. It’s 20 tries to Norton, nine to Caprice.
Norton: Is it? I wouldn’t know. I don’t count. I don’t need to count. You’ve only scored nine tries DC? That’s a bit embarrassing. I only scored one in Dubai as well.
Caprice: I scored eight last weekend.
Norton: [Sarcastically] Oh that counts. It was at Bury St Edmonds. And he missed a kick in front of the posts as well. So to sum up I’d say I’m quicker.
How about in terms of strength. What is your max squat?
Norton: I don’t know. He’s the strong one. I don’t train enough to get a decent score. [Jokingly, we hope] I hate my life!
Caprice: When I was 18 I think I did 150kg for 10.
Norton: Oh, you’re so strong…
Caprice: I was back in the day. I peaked at 18. With Sevens I think you don’t really need to have brute strength like you would in XVs. You won’t go as heavy on the weights. Power and speed are more important because there aren’t as many collisions.
In that case what about speed? What’s your GPS top speed?
Norton: DC’s top speed is 38km/hr…
Caprice: No it’s not, it’s 40.
Norton: Bret [calling down to their fitness coach]. Bret, what’s our official highest GPS score?
Bret: I can honestly say, hand on heart, the top score is 38.
Norton: Ha! Ha!
Caprice: That is not true!!
Bret: Unofficially DC ran the fastest time twice.
Norton: Yeah, unofficially. And it was downhill and one hell of a wind. Jesus that wind was fast! I’m just saying. Obviously he’s a quick guy.
Caprice: All the backs try to go 35 plus.
Norton: Mine was about 36.
Caprice: What?
Norton: 35.75…
So what is the range of top speeds in the squad? Who’s the slowest?
Norton: Can’t give names…Chris Cracknell…can’t give names.
Caprice: No, everyone will get over 30km/h. That was our minimum at the start of the year.
Norton: Forwards would be running 30-34, outside backs 35 plus.
Putting that into context what would an average person reach?
Norton: Well do you know what the fastest speed was in the Premiership?
Caprice: No?
Norton: 32km/h.
Caprice: [In genuine disbelief] No!
Norton: I don’t know who it was but it goes to show XVs is different to sevens. There isn’t much space and it’s more about kick and chase.
Caprice: I’d say your average Joe would make 27-28km/h.
Norton: Bret, what would you say was your top speed?
Bret: 28km/h.
Norton: What, never. Maybe downhill.
Extra-curricular activity
Finally, one of your bios on the RFU site reveals a passion for playing the ukulele…
Norton: This one here [imitating DC on the string instrument]. He is the singing and dancing one on the team. Here’s what he used to do: when he was at his popular, private school in years 10 and 11 they had to do community work so him and his three mates used to go to an old people’s home and stand there like the Blues Brothers, playing a capella and just sing [again imitating DC bellowing out into the empty Twickenham Stadium]. He used to do that and enjoy it as well.
Caprice: I’ve got a soft spot for music.
Norton: [To the passing Nick Royle and fellow England Sevens team-mate] Nick, what’s DC’s singing like? No comment. The redneck hates it!
Caprice: I try to dance with Nick in the room but he won’t have any of it.
Norton: He prides himself on it to be fair.
Caprice: I did invent a new dance actually. It’s called expression dancing. I’ve tried to get it around the team. I’ve planned it. I know what I’m going to do if we win in the final. I’m going to do the bear scratch on the post.
Norton: [Bursting out in laughter]. So he puts himself in an animal’s perspective – how they would dance. Show them the animal scratch.
Caprice: You have to have an open mind. This is a bear scratching its bum. So if we win I’ll put the try down and go up to the post and…[he says as he gets up off his seat, plants his feet and gyrates his gluteus maximus against an imaginary rugby post.]
Norton: He’s got one for a lion, a rhino, just weird stuff like that.
Caprice: I think it’s going to be big though. You’ll see it in all the London clubs.
Well, in that case, I’m sure all the fans will be in for a treat this weekend at Twickenham. Thank you both so much for giving us an insight into your world on, and somewhat surreally, off the field. Best of luck.
Cheers. Bye.
To purchase tickets for the London Emirates Sevens at Twickenham this weekend, 21-22 May, follow this link. For every ticket sold from the Prostate Cancer Charity website, £5 will be donated to the charity.