Tom Croft
Encyclopedia
Tom Croft, born 7 November 1985 in Basingstoke
Basingstoke
Basingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, is a rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 player for Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...

 in the Aviva Premiership.

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
Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...

 squad.

Croft is said to be equally comfortable in the backline, at the bottom of a ruck or jumping at three in the line
Line-out
A line-out is the means by which, in rugby union, the ball is put back into play after it has gone into touch. It is the equivalent of the throw-in in soccer. Rugby league abolished line-outs in 1897...

. According to Dean Richards
Dean Richards (rugby player)
Dean Richards is a former England and British & Irish Lions rugby union player. He had a long playing career with Leicester Tigers, and played 48 times for England and six times for the British & Irish Lions.-Club career:...

, Croft "has everything", and former All Black, Aaron Mauger
Aaron Mauger
Aaron Joseph Douglas Mauger is a former rugby union player who played at centre for Leicester Tigers. He previously played first five-eighths and second five-eighths for Canterbury , the Crusaders and the New Zealand All Blacks...

, is quoted as saying he is the quickest back-row forward
Flanker (rugby union)
A flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Flankers play in the forwards, and are generally classified as either blindside, or openside flankers; numbers six and seven respectively. The name comes from their position in a scrum in which they flank each set of forwards...

 he has ever seen. Martin Corry believes England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

 have never had a player blessed with Croft's abundant abilities.

Croft went to Oakham School
Oakham School
Oakham School is a British co-educational independent school in the historic market town of Oakham in Rutland, accepting around 1,000 pupils, aged from 10 to 18, both male and female, as boarders and day pupils . The Good Schools Guide called the school "a privileged but unpretentious and...

 in Rutland. Other sportsmen educated at Oakham include Lewis Moody
Lewis Moody
Lewis Walton Moody MBE is an English rugby union rugby player who currently plays for Bath Rugby and was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. He is renowned for his commitment to the physical aspects of the game....

, Matt Smith
Matt Smith (rugby player)
Matt Smith is a rugby union footballer who plays utility back for Leicester Tigers and England U-21.-Career:...

, Stuart Broad
Stuart Broad
Stuart Christopher John Broad is a cricketer who plays Test and One Day International cricket for England and is currently the captain of their Twenty20 team...

 (who was in the same year) and others. Croft is one of a talented list of young English back-row forwards
Flanker (rugby union)
A flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Flankers play in the forwards, and are generally classified as either blindside, or openside flankers; numbers six and seven respectively. The name comes from their position in a scrum in which they flank each set of forwards...

 that includes the likes of Tom Rees
Tom Rees (rugby player)
Thomas Rees is a rugby union footballer who plays flanker for London Wasps and has represented England at senior, Under-21, Under-19, Under-18 and Under-16 levels as well as sevens.-Career:...

, James Haskell
James Haskell
James Haskell is an English professional Rugby Union player who currently plays for the Top League team Ricoh Black Rams in Japan and internationally for England.-Career:...

, Steffon Armitage
Steffon Armitage
Steffon Armitage is a rugby union player for RC Toulon in the Top 14.- Career :Armitage plays as a flanker. He is of heavy build but of comparatively slight stature for a modern day flanker. A comparison with Neil Back has been made and like Back he is quick and particularly effective in ruck...

, Luke Narraway
Luke Narraway
Luke Narraway is a rugby union footballer who plays for Gloucester Rugby.-Club career:Narraway joined Gloucester Rugby from The King's School, Worcester after 4 years at The Chantry High School, Worcestershire...

, Chris Robshaw
Chris Robshaw
Chris Robshaw is a rugby union player and captain of Harlequins in the Aviva Premiership. Robshaw's position of choice is in the back-row, specifically blind-side flanker....

, Jordan Crane
Jordan Crane (rugby player)
Jordan Crane is a professional Rugby Union player, who currently plays for Leicester Tigers having moved from Leeds Tykes at the end of the 2005–06 season. Crane has also played internationally for England....

 and Tom Guest. Combined with established players such as Joe Worsley
Joe Worsley
Joseph Paul Richard Worsley MBE is a retired English rugby union player who played flanker for Wasps and England.-Biography:...

, Lewis Moody
Lewis Moody
Lewis Walton Moody MBE is an English rugby union rugby player who currently plays for Bath Rugby and was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. He is renowned for his commitment to the physical aspects of the game....

 and Nick Easter
Nick Easter
Nick Easter is a rugby union rugby player who plays at No. 8 or Flanker for Harlequins and England.He is the brother of Sale Sharks player Mark Easter and the nephew of author Anne Easter Smith. His father John, played squash professionally and reached number 1 in Britain and No.9 in the world...

, England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

 may face a back-row selection headache for many years to come.

Club career

His senior debut for Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...

 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
2008-09 Heineken Cup
The 2008–09 Heineken Cup was the fourteenth edition of the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union European club competition for clubs from the top six nations in European rugby. It started in October 2008 and ended on 23 May 2009 at Murrayfield in Edinburgh...

 semi-final against Cardiff Blues
Cardiff Blues
Cardiff Blues are one of the four professional Welsh regional rugby union teams. Based in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, the team have played at Cardiff City Stadium since the start of the 2009/2010 season and are owned by Cardiff Rugby Football Club....

, which resulted in a historic sudden death kicking competition. Fortunately, the shoot-out ended before Croft's turn came up – though it was a close run thing, as either he or Harry Ellis
Harry Ellis
Harry Alistair Ellis is a retired English rugby union footballer who played scrum half for Leicester Tigers, England and the British & Irish Lions....

 would have followed Jordan Crane
Jordan Crane (rugby player)
Jordan Crane is a professional Rugby Union player, who currently plays for Leicester Tigers having moved from Leeds Tykes at the end of the 2005–06 season. Crane has also played internationally for England....

. Although the Tigers fell at the final hurdle of the Heineken Cup, they won the 2008-09 Guinness Premiership
2008-09 Guinness Premiership
-Table:-Round 1:-Round 2:-Round 3:-Round 4:-Round 5:-Round 6:-Round 7:-Round 8:-Round 9:-Round 10:-Round 11:-Round 12:-Rearranged fixtures:-Round 13:-Round 14:...

. Croft played lock in both finals, as a result of injury to team-mate Louis Deacon
Louis Deacon
Louis Deacon is an English rugby union footballer. He is a lock.His playing career started as an eight year old, playing with Wigston, before joining Syston. He later joined Syston and as a Ratcliffe College student represented the Midlands county and both the England 16 Group and U18 Group School...

.

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
2008-09 Guinness Premiership
-Table:-Round 1:-Round 2:-Round 3:-Round 4:-Round 5:-Round 6:-Round 7:-Round 8:-Round 9:-Round 10:-Round 11:-Round 12:-Rearranged fixtures:-Round 13:-Round 14:...

 final victory, this time at blindside flanker.

He captained the Tigers for the first time on 3 October 2010, against Saracens.

International career

Croft was called up to the England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

 squad for the 2008 Six Nations Championship
2008 Six Nations Championship
The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 114th...

. He had already been selected for the England Saxons
England Saxons
England Saxons is the current name of England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England A...

 and England Sevens
England national rugby union team (sevens)
The English national rugby union sevens team compete in the World Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games.-Honours:* 1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament - Winners* Rugby World Cup Sevens Winners 1993* Hong Kong Sevens Winners 2002* Hong Kong Sevens Winners 2003*...

 sides.

He gained his first England cap in the 2008 Six Nations win against France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...

 in Paris.
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
Pacific Islanders rugby union team
The Pacific Islanders rugby union team is an international rugby union team, started in 2004, that represents Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. While Niue and the Cook Islands are not members of the Pacific Tri-Nations competition, they did supply players to the squad for the Pacific Islanders' tour in 2004...

, and , before being named on the bench against . Croft was awarded man of the match when England defeated 34 – 10 at Twickenham
Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...

 in the 2009 Six Nations Championship
2009 Six Nations Championship
The 2009 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2009 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the tenth Six Nations Championship, an annual rugby union competition contested by the six major Northern Hemisphere rugby union national teams...

.

On the 20 May 2009, he was called up to the squad by coach Ian McGeechan
Ian McGeechan
Sir Ian Robert McGeechan OBE is a Scottish former rugby union player and coach. His nickname is "Geech".-Playing career:...

 for the Lions 2009 tour of South Africa
2009 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa
The 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour to South Africa was an international rugby union tour which took place in South Africa from May to July 2009....

 as a replacement for the banned Alan Quinlan
Alan Quinlan
Alan Quinlan is an Irish rugby union player. He played for Munster and is registered to the AIB League side Shannon. He retired from rugby in May 2011.-Career:...

.

He then subsequently started the first two tests against , 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, though the award went to Richie McCaw
Richie McCaw
Richard Hugh "Richie" McCaw is a New Zealand rugby union player, and is the current test captain. He plays in the openside flanker position for the New Zealand, Crusaders and Canterbury rugby teams...

. 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 . Injury to Joe Worsley
Joe Worsley
Joseph Paul Richard Worsley MBE is a retired English rugby union player who played flanker for Wasps and England.-Biography:...

 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, though he regained his starting place from James Haskell
James Haskell
James Haskell is an English professional Rugby Union player who currently plays for the Top League team Ricoh Black Rams in Japan and internationally for England.-Career:...

 for the Australian summer tour. He switched to openside flanker to cover injured captain Lewis Moody
Lewis Moody
Lewis Walton Moody MBE is an English rugby union rugby player who currently plays for Bath Rugby and was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. He is renowned for his commitment to the physical aspects of the game....

 halfway through the second half of the first Test, which England lost 27–17. The second Test saw England beat Australia 20–21. This was only the third time that England had managed to beat Australia in Australia.

He took part in the 2010 Investec Autumn Internationals, starting in both the loss to and the win against , the latter cited by many to have been the best England performance for years. His first try for came as a replacement for James Haskell
James Haskell
James Haskell is an English professional Rugby Union player who currently plays for the Top League team Ricoh Black Rams in Japan and internationally for England.-Career:...

 against .

External links

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