DAN NORTON
England Sevens record-breaker reflects on victory in South Africa
DAN Norton lives life in the fast lane and the England Sevens flyer is not prepared to wait another 20 months to taste success again on the World Series.
The speedster, 28, has been a standout performer in the first two tournaments of the season in Dubai and Cape Town over the past few weeks as Simon Amor’s men kicked things off with a bronze medal in the Middle East before triumphing in South Africa last Sunday – their first tournament win since Tokyo in April 2015.
After consciously throwing away the World Series last season to focus on the Olympics, where Team GB picked up a silver medal, England have switched their focus to the World Series and Norton is keen to show last year was a blip.
He wants to see England regularly compete against South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand, all of whom they have beaten in the first two tournaments, and has set his mind to Wellington at the end of January.
“It’s been an amazing start to the season and it had been a long time coming since Tokyo,” he told The Rugby Paper. “We’re desperate to compete with the best at every tournament.
“We want to be a lot more consistent throughout the year rather than reach a final here and there and then lose in the quarter-finals the following week. We don’t want to be wasting our time wondering what if.
“It’s been frustrating to only win a handful of tournaments in the past. We want to put our best foot forward and want to be playing in finals.
“I remember we watched the final of the South Africa series three years ago just days after Nelson Mandela passed away with South Africa taking on New Zealand.
“The noise was incredible then, so to experience it last Sunday against the Blizbokke was amazing. In the end it’s seven men against seven men and we were keen to cause an upset. We’ll have a big target on our backs from now on and it’s a nice feeling to be at the top, but form only goes so far.
“We’re going to work hard over Christmas to be ready to go again in Wellington. We’ve had a good record there in the past, winning in 2013 reaching the final in 2015.”
Last weekend also saw Norton become England Sevens’ all-time top-try scorer when he crossed for the first of his two tries against Argentina in the pools to go past Ben Gollings’ 220 touchdowns.
Norton added four more after that to end the tournament on 225 career tries – with an 80m effort in the quarters against Fiji with the scores tied 19-19 the pick of the bunch. Now the all-time leaders, Argentina’s Santiago Gomez Cora (230) and Kenya’s Colins Injera (235), are in sight.
Norton added: “It is an amazing feeling to be mentioned alongside names like Ben or ‘Santi’ Cora. When I started playing Sevens I never thought it’d happen. I was lucky to play with Ben in my early years so it’s an honour to have caught him.
“Becoming the No.1 try scorer in world Sevens history is a target but we’ll have to see what Colins does this season.”
Norton proved he is no onetrick pony by topping the Performance Tracker chart in both tournament. The stat-based table ranks players on their carries, breaks, offloads and tackle stats, but excludes tries. Norton said: “It’s a nice cherry on the top and shows the work I’ve been doing for the past couple of seasons.
“I was nowhere near the top last season and for me getting involved more was crucial. I realised that a couple of years ago. I didn’t want to be seen as a one-trick pony so I decided to add more strings to my bow.”