Danielle "Nolli" Waterman (born 20 January 1985) is a retired professional English

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

, rugby sevens player and current rugby commentator. As a member of England's national rugby union team, she became a multiple Six Nations Championship winner and

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in 2014. She was selected for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup squad. She has two older brothers, Sam "Spunky" Waterman and Joe "Jim Jr" Waterman.

Early life and career

Danielle Waterman is the daughter of Jim Waterman, who played in more than 400 games for Bath Rugby. Rugby took hold of her while Waterman's family was staying in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. At Palmerston North High School, she was one of a few girls who played rugby with the

boys A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy is "a ...

. She continued to do so at her first sports club,

Minehead Barbarians RFC Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National Pa ...

, after returning to England. She played for the South West regional U-16s squad until she was selected to the England Senior Academy at the age of 15.

Sports career

On her Test debut in 2003 against Ireland, 18-year-old Danielle Waterman became the youngest woman then to represent her country. She won the award for England's Most Promising Player in 2006 and was the national team's vice captain when England won the

2012 Women's European Championship The 2012 Women's European Championship or "European Cup" was the 17th annual rugby tournament organised by FIRA for the continent's national teams and the ninth official continental championship. Only eight teams took part - the lowest entry since ...

. After winning silver medals at the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

and the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, she became World Champion at the

2014 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup was the seventh edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, and the sixth held in Europe. The World Cup Final took place on 17 August. All of the pool games for the World Cup took place at the Centre National du R ...

having scored a try in the final against Canada. Subsequently, Waterman was awarded

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

's Professional Sports Personality of 2014, in addition to the English team receiving the

BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year Award The BBC Sports Team of the Year Award is an award given annually as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony each December. Currently, the award is given " r the team in an individual sport or sporting discipline that has achieved ...

. Waterman holds a Level 3 Rugby Union coaching certificate. In 2014, she signed a professional contract with England 7s to prepare for the 2016 Summer Olympics. After suffering a knee injury and, later on, a broken cheekbone, Waterman was forced to pause for more than a year. She returned to the field in April 2016 at the

Canada Women's Sevens The Canada Women's Sevens is an annual women's rugby sevens tournament, and one of the stops on the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series. Canada joined in the third year of the Series. The tournament is hosted at Westhills Stadium in the Victori ...

scoring a try in her first appearance in the pool game against Ireland. The English national team won the series tournament with Waterman being named to the tournament's dream team. Waterman was picked for the final selection of Great Britain's national rugby sevens team competing at the 2016 Summer Olympics. The team finished the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

on 4th place losing against New Zealand in the semifinal and against Canada in the match for the bronze medals. She retired from international rugby in 2018 after scoring 47 tries and winning 82 caps over the course of her career. Waterman joined

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

Ladies FC in September 2017, playing in the inaugural Premiers 15 season in which the team finished third overall. She continued to play for Wasps Ladies until her retirement. In 2019, she was on the first panel to determine the

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

women's-15s player-of-the-year award with

Melodie Robinson Melodie Robinson (born 25 May 1973) is a New Zealand sports journalist and presenter, and former international rugby union player for the New Zealand women's national rugby union team. She played 18 tests for the New Zealand women's team, the Bla ...

, Will Greenwood, Liza Burgess, Lynne Cantwell, Fiona Coghlan, Gaëlle Mignot, Jillion Potter, Stephen Jones, and

Karl Te Nana Karl Solomon Te Nana (born 15 July 1975) is a New Zealand former rugby union and rugby league footballer, and currently works in broadcasting as a rugby commentator. A professional rugby union player, Te Nana won a gold medal as part of the Ne ...

. As well, in 2019 she was on the World Rugby Men's Sevens Player of the Year award and World Rugby Women's Sevens Player of the Year award voting panels. In September 2020, Waterman announced her official retirement from professional rugby.

Commentary work

Waterman joined the ITV commentary team as their first female rugby commentator for the Rugby World Cup 2019 and the

2020 Six Nations Championship The 2020 Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) was the 21st Six Nations Championship, the annual rugby union competition contested by the national teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland ...

. She co-hosts a podcast about women's rugby, Try Hards Podcast, with rugby broadcaster Laura-Jane Jones. In April 2021 Waterman was part of a short documentary named Finding Her Voice. The film focused on the abuse Waterman suffered as she made the transition from player to broadcaster.

References

External links

RFU Player Profile
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waterman, Danielle 1985 births Living people England international women's rugby sevens players England women's international rugby union players English female rugby union players Great Britain national rugby sevens team players Olympic rugby sevens players of Great Britain Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rugby union players from Taunton British women podcasters