James Rodwell (born 23 August 1984) is an English

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

player who was part of the national

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...

from 2008 to 2019. He ended his career with records as the Worlds most capped sevens player, having played in the most consecutive tournaments (69) and most tournaments (93) in the

World Rugby Sevens Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World ...

. James is now Assistant coach for the Men’s and Women’s England Sevens teams.

Early life

Rodwell was born in

Wendover Wendover is a town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road along t ...

and began his education at Osmington School, Tring. He began playing rugby at the age of seven at Tring RFC, his local club. From the age of ten he played for

Berkhamsted Collegiate School Berkhamsted School is a private day school (known in the UK as a public school), in the market town of Berkhamsted, in Hertfordshire, England. The present school was formed in 1997 by the amalgamation of the original Berkhamsted School, founded ...

, figuring at

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

and full-back. Rodwell rapidly rose through representative squads, playing with Hertfordshire Schools 18 Group, London & South East U18, captaining North Midlands U20 and representing Midlands U20. During his time at Moseley Rugby Club in Birmingham, Rodwell was voted the U21 player of the year in 2004-05, the players’ player in 2006-07, and supporters’ player in 2008-09. At

Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

Rodwell played mainly at Number 8 for the first team, developing into a key member of the leadership group of a club which valued on-field performance as well as social development. In 2005 he was selected for English Universities, followed by England Counties (2006) and England Sevens (2008). He completed his studies with a degree in Business Commerce.

Sevens

Rodwell made his

England sevens The England national rugby sevens team competes in the Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games. They have once won the Rugby World Cup Sevens — the inaugural tournament in 1993. Historically the team also competed in the World Rugby ...

debut against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at Dubai in 2008. James was named IRB player of the tournament in the 2010

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

leg of the series. He represented England in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi where the team finished fourth. He also represented England in the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

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 ...

where the team finished fifth. Rodwell also won the Mark of Excellency award in the 2019 London 7's which also marks his last tournament in front of his home fans.

Honours

* Silver Medal (Great Britain):

Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held over six days in August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. The 2016 Olympics was the debut for rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics, though rugby union was last played at the 1924 games. The usual laws of ...

* National Trophy: 2009 * IRB player of the tournament Dubai 7s: 2010 * Wellington 7s: 2009 and 2013 * London 7s: 2009 *

Dubai 7s The Dubai 7s is an annual rugby sevens and social event held at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, UAE. Founded in 1970, the event is the longest running sports event in the Middle East. Events The Dubai 7s has six competition ...

: 2010 and 2011 * Tokyo 7s: 2015 * Cape Town 7s: 2016 * Vancouver 7s: 2017

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodwell, James 1984 births Living people English rugby union players England international rugby sevens players Great Britain international rugby sevens players Male rugby sevens players Olympic rugby sevens players for Great Britain Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Rugby sevens players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Alumni of the University of Birmingham Rugby union players from Buckinghamshire People from Wendover Birmingham Moseley Rugby players