David Kipling Denton (born 5 February 1990) is a retired Zimbabwean-born Scottish

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He played in the back row, but could also play in the second row, and represented

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

and

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

in England, and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

internationally.

Background

Denton was born in Zimbabwe, and qualified for Scotland as his mother was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. He attended

Peterhouse Boys School Peterhouse Boys' School (or Peterhouse) is an independent, boarding high school for boys in Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe. The school was founded by Fred Snell in 1955 and is located on an estate that is shared with Calderwood Park, a conservation ...

in Zimbabwe, before moving to Kingswood College in the Eastern Cape in South Africa, where he made several appearances for Eastern Province in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

Rugby playing career

Club career

He moved to Edinburgh to study economics at the University of Edinburgh. While at university he played for

Edinburgh Academicals Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies, is a rugby union club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The club is currently a member of the Scottish Premiership (rugby union), Scottish Premiership, the top tier of Scottish club rugby ...

. Although he struggled to begin with, playing in the 3rd XV for much of his first season, he advanced into the Accies' 2nd team, "TWAYS", under the tutelage of Malcolm McVie. He was brought into the Scotland under-20s set-up before playing for the Scottish National Academy. He was then awarded a professional contract at Edinburgh for the 2010–11 season. His performances in his debut season lead him to being selected for Scotland's extended World Cup squad in the build-up to the showpiece. As well as his defensive capabilities, Denton is known to be an effective ball carrier due to his strength and agility (particularly for a man of his size — 1.96m and 119 kg). In December 2013, Denton ended speculation about his future (which had seen him linked with a move to the

Aviva Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby u ...

) by signing a contract extension which saw him remain at Murrayfield until 2015. On 10 November 2015, Denton signed for English club

Bath Rugby Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union club in Bath, Somerset, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Founded in 1865 as Bath Football Club, since 1894 the club has played at the Recreation Ground, Bath, Rec ...

who compete in the

from the 2015–16 season. On 30 May 2017, it was announced Denton would move from Bath to local rivals

for the 2017-18 season. On 14 February 2018

announced the signing of Denton from Worcester for the 2018–19 season. Denton was forced to retire from rugby due to

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...

in September 2019.

International career

Denton made his debut for

, coming on off the bench in the 10–6 win over

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in the Rugby World Cup warm-up matches in August 2011. However, he was not named in the final squad for the tournament. He also appeared in all of Scotland's under-20 side's games in 2010, five games in the 2010 Six Nations Under 20s Championship and in the

IRB Junior World Championship The World Rugby Under 20 Championship (known as the IRB Junior World Championship until 2014) is an annual international rugby union competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, World Rugby, and is contested by 12 men's juni ...

. He has appeared for the Scottish Sevens team in 2010 in the Dubai and George events. Denton won the "man of the match" award, despite being on the losing side, in Scotland's 6–13 defeat to England in the opening game of the 6 Nations on 4 February 2012. Denton was "Man of the Match" in the 6 Nations match against France on 8 March 2014 despite being on the losing side. Following the announcement of the 6 Nations Squad for the 2018 tournament, Denton was recalled back into the team after a notable absence from the Scotland side since the summer tour of Japan in 2016.

Concussion

Denton retired from rugby in September 2019 after almost 14 months of not playing due to debilitating concussion. In November 2024 Denton joined a group of 390 rugby union players taking part in a concussion lawsuit against the sport's authorities.https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c2e78zd20nko

References

External links

Profile at edinburghrugby.org

Profile at scotlandrugbyteam.org
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Denton, David 1990 births Living people Scottish rugby union players Zimbabwean people of Scottish descent Scotland international rugby union players Edinburgh Rugby players Rugby union number eights Zimbabwean emigrants to the United Kingdom Zimbabwean rugby union players Scotland international rugby sevens players Male rugby sevens players Leicester Tigers players Alumni of Kingswood College (South Africa) 2015 Rugby World Cup players