Toby Flood

Profile

The status of a record breaker enhanced Toby Flood’s performance and that of England in the 35-18 win over Australia in November 2010. His unblemished record of landing nine place kicks, comprising seven penalty goals and two conversions, brought 25 points, the highest total by any player in the 41-match history of the fixture.

His first four on-target kicks against Samoa the following week took his sequence of successful attempts to 13 and he went on to become the RBS 6 Nations Man of the Match when his vision in creating Chris Ashton’s first try and peerless five kicks guided England to a 26-19 victory over Wales at the Millennium Stadium in February 2011.

Eight days later, he landed all his six kicks against Italy. He added another four out of five in the 17-9 win over France and an identical success rate in the Scotland match in March before taking his total to 19 successes from 22 attempts and becoming the top points-scorer with 50 in the 2011 Championship. Moving on, he won his 50th cap in the 14-14 draw with South Africa at Port Elizabeth on June 23 2012. That day, he also landed his 50th penalty goal in Tests.

Toby had already scored 26 points in the two games against the Wallabies three years ago, having returned for the 2010 RBS 6 Nations Championship after rupturing his left Achilles tendon in Leicester Tigers’ Heineken Cup semi final against Cardiff Blues. It brought a premature end to Toby’s 2008-09 season and unluckily cost him a place in two finals, including the Guinness Premiership.

After spending five seasons with Newcastle Falcons, he has since completed three campaigns with Leicester and amassed 1,168 points in his first 97 matches averaging 12.04 per game. He helped the Tigers to a 26-14 triumph over Northampton Saints in the LV=Cup final at Worcester in March last year when playing off the bench for George Ford. After being an Aviva Premiership title winner with Tigers in May this year, he was rested by England for the summer tour of South America.

Looking back further, Toby had rocketed from his first Falcons’ senior appearance against London Wasps as a 19-year-old in February 2005 to his England debut against Argentina at Twickenham in only 21 months.

He played off the bench for Charlie Hodgson, then of Sale Sharks and now of Saracens, and won four caps as a replacement before his first start against France in 2007, the first of two successive years in which he made ten Test appearances. During that time span, he notched a try against France in 2007 and scored others against Wales and Italy the following year.

Toby had been a late replacement for Jamie Noon in the 2007 RWC party and made a sound contribution to England’s advance to the final with caps off the bench for Mike Catt against Australia, France and in the final against South Africa. Versatility is among his assets with his 36 Test starts embracing 27 at fly half and nine at centre. He appeared in four of England’s five matches in the 2011 RWC.

Earlier in his career, Toby not only progressed from the England U18 side but also contributed to a second Grand Slam in three seasons for the U21 team on his way to senior England status.

Before joining the Falcons Academy, he played for Alnwick and Morpeth and obtained a degree in Business Management at Northumbria University. A product of King's School, Tynemouth, he also represented Northumberland Schools U16 and U18, and England Students, was a county standard athlete and played cricket for Northumberland U16. His father Tim appeared for Alnwick.

International Record

299 points – 4T, 39C, 66PG, 1DG

2006 Arg(R), SA(R) 2007 S(R), It(R), F, W, SA, SA, W(R) World Cup - A(R), F(R), SA(R) 2008 W, It, F, S, I, NZ(2), PI(R), A(R), SA(R), NZ 2009 W(R), I, F, S 2010 W, S(R), F, A(1,2), NZ, A, Sam, SA 2011 W, It, F, S, I, W, I(R) World Cup - G, R(R), S(R), F 2012 W(R), SA(1R,2,3), Fj, A, SA 2013 S(R), F(R), It, W(R)

Last updated: June 11, 2013

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