While it may be unfathomable to some now, I was once a half-decent rugby player.

In fact once upon a time, it was my dream to make it as a professional rugby player.

Sheer physiology unfortunately dictated that such an occurrence would never materialise but still, I have had relative success on a small scale in the sport. I was part of a formidable school side that went two years without losing a game on route to winning three Essex Schools Championships and four Essex Sevens titles.

I also represented the University of Bedfordshire 1st XV on several occasions which one could consider a pretty decent standard.

But it does not quite represent the heights of playing for England.

It was therefore with some excitement that I recently opened an email inviting the media to train with the England rugby sevens team on the hallowed turf at Twickenham Stadium.

While 15-a-side rugby remains the dominant form of the game, rugby sevens has risen steadily in popularity over the years.

It has become a key feature of the Commonwealth Games but it is fair to say that things really exploded for the sport on October 9, 2009, when during the 121st International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Copenhagen, it was decided that the sport would be included in the Olympic Games for Rio 2016.

With an Olympic gold medal - arguably the greatest prize in sport - now available for rugby sevens players, the sport is starting to reach a new stratosphere and I was very much looking forward to testing myself against the best players in the country.

I was arrived at Twickenham Stadium, walked past the famous Golden Lion statue I know so well, and was directed straight to the magnificent England changing room with a sense of awe.

I had seen my first match at Twickenham, unequivocally the home of rugby, when I was just 10-years-old.

The match took place on December 8, 1997, and saw England and New Zealand draw 26-26.

It was a superb game but my fondest memory was seeing giant All Black star Jonah Lomu running down the wing in full flow and it was a thrill to now have the chance to tread on the turf where he had so often devastated the world's best players.

After getting over the fact that I was actually getting changed in the England dressing room, my media colleagues and I were led out onto the pitch and put through a paces in a warm up drill by England sevens head coach Ben Ryan.


His drills were all extremely fast-paced and despite having participated over 1,000 rugby training sessions, I was starting to struggle.

I was wondering why the session was so intense before I remembered that this was sevens, not 15-a-side.

For those that don't follow the sport too closely, 15-a-side rugby is a much slower form of the game. It often involves a lot of scrums and it is where you see the "fat guys" because of their ability to push.

Rugby sevens is a whole different game. It is played on a full size pitch but as there are only seven people, they all need to be phenomenally fast, phenomenally fit and have not an ounce of fat on them.

This was abundantly clear in my warm up with the England sevens players who all looked like they were chiselled from stone.

Mercifully, the warm up did not last too long and we were split into teams which meant that each team had a few England players on them.

I quickly learnt that the key to winning our games was to pass the ball to one of our England players Dan Norton and judging by his outrageous acceleration, it looks like he must drink Formula One fuel on a regular basis.

He unsurprisingly scored all three of our sides tries before we were put up against another side which included the England sevens captain Ben Gollings.

Gollings slotted in the fly-half position and as a poorly thought through experiment, I lined up opposite him in order to see if I could catch him.

This was my moment, on the hallowed turf of Twickenham, to prove to myself I could have made it as a professional.

I saw the ball come towards Gollings and lined him up for a big hit.

The wind rushed through my ears and for a few seconds it felt like the 80,000 seat stadium was full and cheering me on.

I was just metres away from him when with barely a glance at me, Gollings stepped one way and then speed off in the other direction so quickly that I could not have touched him even if I had had a baseball bat in my hands, which I rather wanted at that point.

I was left face-first in the Twickenham turf as Gollings strolled under the posts, safe in the knowledge that it was probably a good thing I never made it professionally.

As the session drew to an end, head coach Ryan appeared to think we hadn't been humiliated enough as he made two new teams.

It was England's starting sevens team versus the seven best players from the media.

It was with a smile that I was picked in the media team but that was quickly wiped off my face from the moment the game started.

To call the match men against boys is an understatement and they were so much faster than us that we may as well have been playing against seven Ferraris.

I won't tell you the final score, but you can safely assume a lot of points were scored, none of them by us.

We marched off the field and I was left rather amazed at how spectacular the sport of rugby sevens is.

People are wondering if the world's best 15-a-side players will be drafted into sevens for the Olympics but I'm certain that a team of sevens specialists would easily beat an all-star sevens team featuring 15-a-side players.

This is because, in rugby sevens, speed kills and I learnt that the hard way.

I walked off the field and went to thank Gollings for the session.


Gollings himself will next week be leading the England team out at Twickenham Stadium in the Emirates Airline London Sevens and I wanted to also wish him luck for that.

He thanked me and said he had enjoyed the session but that he was only running at about 50 per cent as he had a niggling injury.

Considering as I could not even see the shadow of a 50 per cent Gollings, his comment was all the humiliation I needed for one day.

I quickly showered off in the immaculate Twickenham changing room showers before heading off home.

It isn't overly fun to play unless you are insanely fast and fit, but if you want to watch, you can see the England  team in action on May 21 and 22 at Twickenham Stadium in the Emirates Airline London Sevens, the latest leg in the HSBC Sevens World Series.

Tickets are available from £15 by clicking here. 

And although I'll be supporting England, it would be good to see them pick on someone their own size when the action gets underway.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames

Pictures courtsey of Richard Lane Photography