GATLAND’S CHOIRBOYS
All-round sportsman. Head boy. Musical. Stunning girlfriend. English rugby’s new star Elliot Daly is …
Warren Gatland has revealed his lions squad will take part in choir practice ‘every night’ during this summer’s tour of new Zealand. the players and coaches will learn a song from all four nations to perform at their Maori welcome ceremonies. ‘I want someone to respond in english, Welsh, Irish and Gaelic… if anyone from Scotland can speak that!’ Gatland told the Flats & Shanks podcast. ‘You’ve got to respond in song. the songs we sing will be the players’ decision. From an english point of view, Jerusalem is pretty universal. Maybe the Fields of athenry from Ireland, Calon lan from Wales and Scotland… maybe the Proclaimers!’ ‘We want to put some committees together,’ added Gatland who is to name his touring party in april. ‘there’s a music committee, laundry committee, fines committee and an entertainment committee.’
ELLIOT Daly. Rugby prodigy, obviously. Head boy. A-grade student. Outstanding cricketer. Natural all-round sportsman. Popular with peers, teachers and coaches alike. Grounded. Hard-working. Shaped by loving parents.
Before we faint with damned praise, should we not ask if there is any slight stain on the story of English rugby’s new star?
Well, there was the time he lost a game of cricket in the garden and took a bat to his brother’s head.
‘He would turn everything into a competition,’ said Daly’s parents, Martin and Caroline. ‘He never liked losing.’
One instance of bodily harm to his brother apart, the report on the young Elliot is spotless. And when he collected Owen Farrell’s pinpoint Exocet of a pass to score England’s fabulous winning try against Wales, cheers of pride went up from those who had helped shape his career.
One of Daly’s old teachers at Cumnor House, a prep school in his native Croydon, let out a yelp from his kitchen that his wife heard on the other side of the house. Mike Dobson, his old coach at Dorking Rugby Club, told how his wife jumped out of her chair as they watched on TV. His mother and father were inside the stadium and admitted to having tears in their eyes.
Elliot Fitzgerald Daly was born into a middle- class suburban family, the younger of two talented brothers. Miles was also head boy at Cumnor House, and then a mainstay of the rugby team at their senior school, Whitgift.
He went on to play rugby for Cambridge University.
Elliot took up the game before he had started school — as a fiveyear- old at Beckenham Rugby Club, later going to Dorking. At Cumnor House he is remembered fondly by Peter Crosbie, the aforementioned deputy head, as ‘Mr Reliable’.
‘Elliot was dedicated and set a good example,’ said Crosbie. ‘He was unassuming despite all his talent, and was liked by the other kids. He was a very accomplished boy. He played the clarinet. He was in the jazz band. He was strong academically. He was good at whatever he turned his hand to.
That adroitness was picked up by Eddie Jones, England’s head coach, who put his Australian tongue firmly in cheek when he spoke of Daly as ‘a public schoolboy with beautifully manicured hair’.
‘Elliot’s been blessed with talent, hasn’t he?’ said Jones. ‘He’s the guy holding up the trophy. He plays golf and bang! Three hundred yards down the fairway. He’s one of those kids. We’ve all been to school with one.’
By the time he arrived at Whitgift, aged 13, Daly was recognised as a phenomenal talent, and one whose diligence lived out the school’s motto,
Vincit qui patitur (He who perse- veres, conquers).
He played for Surrey’s age-group cricket teams alongside schoolmate Jason Roy (later Surrey and England). He is a powerful fast bowler, capable of 80mph.
‘I played England Under 15s at cricket,’ said Daly. ‘I had to choose between sports. I was with Surrey and they wanted me to keep playing there, and I got a contract at Wasps at the same time, and went down the rugby route, thinking I enjoyed it a little bit more. It was a big decision but I think I chose wisely.’
He was a star performer in Whitgift’s successive victories in the Daily Mail Cup, orchestrating the first win in 2010 as his teammate and future fellow England international Marland Yarde scored a hat-trick, and having a hand in all five tries and kicking from distance as the school retained their title a year later.
He racked up appearances with England through the age groups, winning the Under 20 Six Nations Grand Slam in 2011. His debut for Wasps came as an 18-year- old schoolboy. He has now made 150 appearances for the club at centre, wing or full-back.
Watching and admiring him during his development was John Fletcher, the national academy director. He told me how rare a gift he sees in Daly: super skills allied to breathtaking pace, where other fine players have one or the other.
Fletcher also remembers Daly’s attention to detail, his hunger to improve. ‘I used to sit the players down,’ said Fletcher, ‘to recall what we had been working on in the camp. About different calls, backs’ moves, decision-making. He was outstanding, and not only about what he was doing, but he knew more about the forwards’ play than the forwards.
‘He just gets the game. He is a multi-sportsman: rackets, cricket, football, and that certainly helps.’
Selected for the 2015 World Cup training squad and then let go,
Daly is blossoming under Jones, who handed him his debut against Ireland last February. However, there was that one international blight, his sending- off against Argentina last autumn for a mistimed tackle.
Daly, who lives in Leamington Spa with his girlfriend of six years, Michelle Cussell, and their black pug Winston, is now arguably the best performer in the white shirt, and a serious Lions contender.
For a man whose left boot can send the ball rocketing 60m, he remains essentially as he is remembered at Whitgift — always playing games in his spare time.