Danny Grewcock: I looked after my team-mates by being an enforcer
Danny Grewcock: I looked after my team-mates by being an enforcer
Daniel SchofieldSun, August 30, 2026 at 6:05 AM UTC
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Danny Grewcock is high-performance rugby manager at Clifton College - Jay Williams for The Telegraph
In the same gothic Victorian building where General Omar Bradley helped plan the D-Day landings, Danny Grewcock is plotting Clifton College’s preseason training. Spoiler alert for any pupils reading: it involves some heavy-looking ropes.
The former England second row brims with passion in his role as high-performance rugby manager, not so much about any particular result but on the impact that sport can have on young people. “The rugby is a small part of actual rugby coaching,” Grewcock says. “It is about getting those relationships, understanding what makes these kids tick and seeing their relationships grow and form bonds with their mates.”
That is not limited to the pitch. He recalls at length what happened when they took every year nine’s mobile phone for a class trip to the Alps.
“Even the parents were saying ‘you can’t do this’,” Grewcock says. “But what happened is 120 kids embraced boredom, which children very seldom do with a phone in their hand. Suddenly, they become more creative. They use their imagination and amazingly the cold turkey period does that because everyone is in the same boat. The feedback we got afterwards, in spite of all the initial resistance, was amazing.”
Grewcock is keen to push youngsters to use their imagination rather than being tied to smartphones - Jay Williams for The Telegraph
It can be hard to reconcile this compassionate, almost cuddly figure with the renowned hardman for Bath and England rugby in the 2000s. Perhaps a few of his team-mates would have guessed his analytical partner in the Bath second row, Steve Borthwick, might have had a future in coaching, but the idea of Grewcock finding his niche in the independent school circuit would have seemed far-fetched.
Conversely, Grewcock argues there was as much a pastoral element to being an on-field enforcer as there is to working with children. “In my playing days, part of my role was looking after my team-mates,” he says. “My job was not kicking drop goals. I wanted players in the team I was in to feel good and comfortable to play, which meant I had to do a certain job.”
Grewcock gets to grips with Leicester’s Toby Flood while playing for Bath in 2010 - Paul Harding/Action Images
Indeed, the “disciplinary record” section of Grewcock’s Wikipedia page is longer than the “playing career” section, which is hardly inconsiderable. He was part of England’s 2003 World Cup-winning squad, winning 69 caps for his country and a further five for the British and Irish Lions, which is all the more impressive considering Grewcock did not start playing top-flight rugby until he was 25.
But invariably the words “red” and “card” spring up when you Google his name, which can come as a surprise to a few prospective pupils at Clifton. “You can see their eyes widen,” Grewcock says. “They will be slightly gobsmacked and say we saw some clips on YouTube. It is not all good.”
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Grewcock is shown a red card against New Zealand in 1998 - David Rogers/Allsport
There were four sendings-off in total, plus a few other trips to various disciplinary panels during an era which straddled the Wild West days of amateurism and today’s game where nothing ever escapes the attention of the all-seeing television match official.
“It was a fine line I trod and sometimes I got it wrong,” Grewcock admits. Trod is an unfortunate word after an incident with Stephen Ferris’s arm, yet rather than shy away from his past, Grewcock is up front with his pupils on his mistakes.
“I explain that under pressure, people make mistakes and that [Ferris] was one of mine,” Grewcock says. “But the game dealt with it very clearly. Red card. Ban. It is not a perfect example to show the kids, but life isn’t perfect. The game isn’t perfect. I am comfortable to say I have made mistakes and there’s one for us all to see. I think the kids find it quite funny at my expense and they happily chuckle away at it. It shows your vulnerabilities. It shows that not all good things happen and you have to deal with them.”
As much as I probe around his past, Grewcock quickly brings the conversation back to the present at Clifton College. His voice reverberates with pride as he discusses putting seven teams into the Rosslyn Park Sevens, taking his girls team to Bristol Bears where they sat in on a review meeting or an under-14 full-back in the C team winning the school’s weekly courageous award.
Yet there is pain too. In March, Matt Salter, the school’s director of rugby, died of a heart attack. “It has been tough, really tough,” Grewcock says choking up momentarily. “He was a phenomenal individual and has had such an influence, not just on the rugby programme but across the entire school.” It was Salter, the former Bristol captain, who devised the year-nine train journey to the Alps as well as organised a rugby tour to South America where they played the Brazil Under-19 national side.
Salter also brought Grewcock to Clifton and turned the school into a powerhouse in the south-west circuit. He did this by creating a fixture list where there are absolutely no “gimmes”, which is a legacy Grewcock is keen to carry on.
“This is all Matt’s philosophy,” Grewcock says. “Kids have to be challenged. Give them experiences. That’s when they will grow. They could fail. They could succeed but Jesus they worked hard to succeed. There should never be easy wins. All it is about is great experiences for our boys. We gave to be honest with prospective parents and say we could lose every fixture this season but we are comfortable saying that because we know the challenges are there every Saturday.”
Fortunately, Clifton did manage to win their fair share of games last season, most notably winning away at rivals Wellington thanks to a last-minute drop goal from Sam Worsley, the current Bristol fly-half, in the dying light after their team coach had been delayed in traffic. “I put it down with one my most magical sporting moments,” Grewcock says. “It had all the ingredients.”
A reminder: Grewcock won the World Cup with England in 2003 but he has no doubt whose drop goal was more sweetly struck. “Well Jonny [Wilkinson] had loads of goals at that hadn’t he?” Grewcock said. “And he made a mess of loads of them. Sam had one go and nailed it. Into the darkness too. So yeah Sam definitely.”
Source: “AOL Sports”
