By Adrian Warner
HITCHIN, England (Reuters) – In a world where people buy their clothes, hold meetings and find their lovers online, it was only a matter of time before somebody launched their international rugby career via the internet.
Brothers Dan and Ben Wiggins play their rugby at Hitchin Rugby Club, a community team in the south of England where no players are paid and 50 spectators and six dogs is regarded as a bumper crowd.
But on Saturday, the flyhalf and scrumhalf will play their second game for Denmark in a European Conference clash with Norway in Stavanger after starting their international rugby careers as much by speculative emails as tackles and tries.
It all began when Dan (26), and flyhalf Ben (24) were surfing the net during the COVID pandemic in 2020.
“We knew from childhood that our grandmother was Danish and that we had family in Denmark but sadly we had never managed to get over there,” said Ben, who earns his living working for charity projects at professional English rugby club Saracens.
“We thought it would be a cool idea to play for a country and England was out of the question. So we did a bit of a search online to see how we could potentially qualify for Denmark and found some email contacts. The federation told us the criteria and we managed to meet all of it.”
The brothers were asked to email a highlights video and Denmark’s South African-born coach Junaire Brown was impressed.
“He invited us out to trial in September 2022 and we were lucky enough to get called into the squad,” Dan said. “Two weeks later we played our debut game against Andorra.”
Father Martin Wiggins, who supported their interest in rugby as youngsters, admits he was sceptical that the online approach would work.
“I thought ‘Yea, right, that is going to happen’,” Martin said. “But when they did play, I have never been so nervous on the day of a game. Now, the family, especially the Danish family, are very proud of them. It is fantastic.”
Dan, a sales rep at a software company, added: “We didn’t do it as a bit of a laugh. I genuinely wanted to know what it was like. I had looked on YouTube at some clips of them playing. I was intrigued by it. What I didn’t expect was to get the response that we got.”
Rugby has been played in Denmark since the 1930s but the Danish Rugby Union was not founded until 1950. The country is ranked 77th out of 109 nations by governing body World Rugby.
Faced with fierce competition from traditional Danish sports such as handball and football, the Danes are also throwing energy into the Olympic sport of rugby sevens to help convert players from other sports.
For the Wiggins brothers this is a completely new world. In their first international, they had to get their heads around having to sign autographs for fans and their mouths around the words of the Danish national anthem. Since they don’t speak Danish, Google and YouTube came to the rescue again.
“We had a couple of late nights YouTubing the anthem, just to make sure we are getting it all right,” Ben said. Danish is very tricky. It is not a language that comes naturally.”
Word is also getting around the Hertfordshire rugby scene that Hitchin have two current internationals in their ranks, a rare boast for a junior club.
“It is great for the club. It is a good talking point,” club vice-chair Tim Jeffries said. “And, of course, they have come through our mini and youth system as well, so it’s actually an inspiration to all of the youngsters.”
(Reporting by Adrian Warner, editing by Mitch Phillips and Toby Davis)
