Statistics
| Squad | Bath Rugby |
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| Position | Prop |
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| Age | 37 |
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| Height | 1.88m (6'2") |
|---|
| Weight | 126kg (19st 11lb) |
|---|
| Caps | 5 Test appearances |
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History repeated itself for Duncan Bell, who won his first England caps six years ago after Phil Vickery had sustained a broken arm and Julian White suffered a neck injury.
With the pair again absent in the autumn of 2009, Duncan was called into the England Elite Squad 12 days before the opening match against Australia in the Investec Challenge Series and played in all three Tests.
A member of England’s 1998 Southern Hemisphere tour party, he was an unused bench replacement against the Wallabies, a sedentary role that still precluded him from fulfilling an alternative ambition to gain a Wales qualification on residency.
He played for Ebbw Vale and Pontypridd as well as London Irish, Sale Sharks and Harlequins but had taken up the game owhen nine at Bath. Born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, he was raised on the Gloucestershire-Wiltshire borders in the village of Hawkesbury Upton, represented England Under 16s and won a place at Colston’s in Bristol.
Duncan went on to appear for England A and was man of the match, as well as a being among four try-scorers, in the 30-20 win over France on his own club ground in February 2005. Five years on, he started the opening Churchill Cup match for the Saxons when they beat Russia 49-17 at Infinity Park, Glendale, Colorado.
He had been a folk hero in the valleys when appearing for Pontypridd, where he was part of a front row unit that featured internationals Mefin Davies and Gethin Jenkins. At ‘Ponty’, Duncan was serenaded from the terraces by ‘Duncan is a Welshman’ but his destiny lay in England.
Towards the end of February 2011, he had made 189 appearances for Bath in a career dating back to 2003-04 that also encompasses eight highly popular tries from a prop with a nomadic nature around the field. A year earlier, he had signed a new two-year contract with the club.