Theo's wild rise started in the forest

AMPTHILL MOB BEGAN DAN'S WACKY JOURNEY

- Alex Spink

ON SUNDAY it was easy to find Theo Dan. Simply switch on the TV and there he was playing for England against Japan.

Go back a year and it was rather more of a challenge. First you had to drop out of English rugby's Premiership, then go for a walk through a forest.

Dan is the son of Romanian parents, a 22-year-old born and raised in the UK after the family emigrated from Bucharest. If that part of his life story is unusual, his rugby journey is no less so.

"This time last year I was lining up to play for Ampthill on loan," he says in a break between training sessions at England's base in Le Touquet.

"The journey from the changing rooms to the pitch is through a forest.