Tom Croft

Tom Croft

Personal information
Full name	Thomas Richard Croft
Date of birth	7 November 1985 (1985-11-07) (age 24)
Place of birth	Basingstoke, England
Height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight	16 st 5 lbs (105 kg)
Nickname(s)	Crofty, Crafty
School(s) attended	Park House School Oakham School
Club information
Position(s)	Flanker, Lock
Current club	Leicester Tigers
Youth clubs
Years	Club
	Newbury RFC
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
2005 ‐	Leicester Tigers	63 (60)
Representative teams**
2007– 2008– 2009	England Saxons England British and Irish Lions	180(0) 30(10)
Sevens National teams**
2006 ‐	England
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only. ** Representative team caps and points correct as of 28 February 2009.

Tom Croft, born 7 November 1985 in Basingstoke, England, is a rugby union player for Leicester Tigers in the Guinness Premiership.

Contents 1 Background 2 Club career 3 International career 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Background

Croft's best position is blindside flanker, but he can fill in at openside flanker (where he has the pace, but is slightly too tall), and lock (where he is tall enough, but not really powerful enough in the scrum). He is known for his line-out agility and speed, unusually for a forward. He is one of the quickest players in the Tigers squad.^[1]

Croft is said to be equally comfortable in the backline, at the bottom of a ruck or jumping at three in the line. According to Dean Richards, Croft "has everything", and former All Black, Aaron Mauger, is quoted as saying he is the quickest back-row forward he has ever seen. Martin Corry believes England have never had a player blessed with Croft's abundant abilities.^[2]

Tom Croft went to Oakham School in Rutland. Other sportsmen educated at Oakham include Lewis Moody, Matt Smith, Stuart Broad (who was in the same year) and others. Croft is one of a talented list of young English back-row forwards that includes the likes of Tom Rees, James Haskell, Steffon Armitage, Luke Narraway, Chris Robshaw and Jordan Crane. Combined with established players such as Joe Worsley, Lewis Moody and Nick Easter, England may face a back-row selection headache for many years to come.^[3]

[edit] Club career

His senior debut for Leicester Tigers came against Gloucester in the 2005-06 season, a week after he turned 20. In the following season, which included a Premiership title and the Anglo-Welsh Cup for the Tigers, he made 16 appearances.

2008-09 could be considered Croft's breakthrough season, in which he established himself both in the club side and on the international scene. He was man-of-the-match in the Heineken Cup semi-final against Cardiff Blues, which resulted in a historic sudden death kicking competition.^[4] Fortunately, the shoot-out ended before Croft's turn came up - though it was a close run thing, as either he or Harry Ellis would have followed Jordan Crane.^[5] Although the Tigers fell at the final hurdle of the Heineken Cup, they won the 2008-09 Guinness Premiership. Croft played lock in both finals, as a result of injury to team-mate Louis Deacon.

The following season didn't quite match up to the previous for Croft, due in no small part to the two knee injuries he sustained, one after the other in the middle of the season. He worked his way back successfully, however, and featured in another Premiership final victory, this time at blindside flanker.^[6]

[edit] International career

Croft was called up to the England squad for the 2008 Six Nations Championship.^[7][8] He had already been selected for the England Saxons and England Sevens sides.^[9]

He gained his first England cap in the 2008 Six Nations win against France in Paris.^[10] He was then named in Martin Johnson's squad on 1 June 2008. He gained starting places in the squad at blindside flanker for three games against the Pacific Islanders, Australia and South Africa, before being named on the bench against New Zealand. Croft was awarded man of the match when England defeated France 34 - 10 at Twickenham in the 2009 Six Nations Championship.

On the 20 May 2009, he was called up to the squad by coach Ian McGeechan for the Lions 2009 tour of South Africa as a replacement for the banned Alan Quinlan.^[11]

He then subsequently started the first two tests against South Africa, and came off the bench in the 3rd test. He scored two tries in the first test defeat - becoming the first Lions forward to score twice against the Springboks.

In November 2009, Croft was nominated for the IRB Player of the Year for 2009^[12], though the award went to Richie McCaw. Despite making the short-list and having started the first two games of the Autumn Internationals, Croft found himself demoted to the bench for the third test, against New Zealand.^[13] Injury to Joe Worsley saw him take the field within the first five minutes, however.

Croft's second knee injury in the 2009-10 season saw him miss out on the 2010 Six Nations entirely,^[14] though he regained his starting place from James Haskell for the Australian summer tour.^[15] He switched to openside flanker to cover injured captain Lewis Moody halfway through the second half of the first Test, which England lost 27-17.^[16] The second Test saw England beat Australia 20-21.^[17] This was only the third time that England had managed to beat Australia in Australia.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Leicester profile
• England profile
• England new boys - Tom Croft

v • d • e Leicester Tigers squad Forwards Ayerza • Bucknall • Blaze • Castrogiovanni • Chuter • Cole • Crane • Croft • Deacon • Duffey • Green • Hawkins • Newby • Parling • Pienaar • Skivington • Stankovich • Waldrom • White • Woods Backs Agulla • Allen • Flood • González Amorosino • Grindal • Hamilton • Harrison • Hipkiss • Hurrell • Murphy • Robinson • Smith • Staunton • A. Tuilagi • M. Tuilagi • Twelvetrees • Youngs Coach Cockerill

v • d • e British and Irish Lions - 2009 South Africa tour Forwards Heaslip (Ireland) · Powell (Wales) · Wallace (Ireland) · Ferris (Ireland) · Quinlan (Ireland)(Selected but ruled out by ban) · Worsley (England) · M Williams (Wales) · A W Jones (Wales) · O'Connell (Captain) (Ireland) · O'Callaghan (Ireland) · Shaw (England) · Hines (Scotland) · Jenkins (Wales) · A R Jones (Wales) · Sheridan (England) · Vickery (England) · Murray (Scotland) · Flannery (Ireland)(Selected but ruled out by injury) · Mears (England) · Rees (Wales) · Croft (England) · Ford (Scotland) · Hayes (Ireland) · Payne (England) Backs Byrne (Wales) · Kearney (Ireland) · S Williams (Wales) · Halfpenny (Wales)(Selected but ruled out by injury) · Monye (England) · Fitzgerald (Ireland) · Bowe (Ireland) · Shanklin (Wales)(Selected but ruled out by injury) · Roberts (Wales) · O'Driscoll (Ireland) · D'Arcy (Ireland national rugby union team) · Earls (Ireland) · Flutey (England) · O'Gara (Ireland) · S Jones (Wales) · Phillips (Wales) · Ellis (England) · O'Leary (Ireland)(Selected but ruled out by injury) · Blair (Scotland) · Hook (Wales) Coach McGeechan (plus Gatland, Edwards and Howley)