Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Nick Duncombe

Harlequins and England scrum-half

Monday 17 February 2003 01:00 GMT
Comments

Nicholas Stephen Duncombe, rugby player: born Taplow, Buckinghamshire 21 January 1982; died Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote 14 February 2003.

Nick Duncombe had played just 270 minutes of senior rugby, representing some three and a half matches, for Harlequins' first XV, when, on 2 February last year – just 12 days after his 20th birthday – he made his England début as a half-time replacement for the injured scrum-half Kyran Bracken against Scotland at Murrayfield.

That his diminutive frame survived some ferocious tackling was testament to his physical condition and his mental approach to fitness. Some two years previously he had suffered a broken neck in a schools match but had come back from that setback with no ill-effects.

While his 5ft 8in build made him more suited to be a flat race rider, there was little doubt in the mind of most aficionados that this product of the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe would be jockeying for a regular England place before too long.

It was as a schoolboy that Duncombe gave the earliest indications of his gifts when he won caps at Under 16 and Under 19 levels. He went on to become a full-time professional with Harlequins and he certainly fulfilled all the early promise in those two appearances for his country – a fortnight after taking on Scotland, he again came off the bench to help out against Ireland.

Had he not been recovering from a hamstring strain recently he might well have been in the frame for the match against France at the weekend, because he had also established himself as an important member of England's Rugby Sevens squad, appearing in last summer's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

His prowess at the abbreviated form of the game impressed many of his colleagues, as did his attitude to competition, summed up by his England colleague Jonny Wilkinson, who said:

One memory I have is of a sevens match, England against Fiji or New Zealand. Anyway one of their players had run the whole length of the pitch, a try looked a formality, and at that point I would have been thinking about getting under the posts for the conversion.

Suddenly this diminutive figure comes racing across, and smashes this enormous guy into touch on the line. Just when the whole thing looked hopeless Nick had come sprinting across the pitch, saving his team at the last minute. That is the kind of heart Nick had.

There is little doubt he had a long international future. The England head coach Clive Woodward said:

Nick was one of our brightest and most talented players. The two caps he won would have been, I believe, the beginning of a long international career, which had already started so well with some superb performances for the England Under 19 and Sevens teams.

David Llewellyn

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in