Henry Trinder

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A try-scorer three minutes into his senior debut for an England XV against the Barbarians at Twickenham in May, Henry Trinder crossed the USA line six days later on his first Saxons’ appearance in the Churchill Cup opener at Franklin’s Gardens. It capped his golden run in which he had bagged six Premiership tries in his final nine matches of the campaign for Gloucester. 

Another of the ‘likely lads’ in the Kingsholm production line, he first played in the Premiership against Sale Sharks on March 14, 2008 six days after his Saxons’ squad mate Charlie Sharples first donned a Cherry & White jersey in the competition against London Irish.

Henry rose to prominence after excelling for England Under 18s before playing eight times for the Under 20s. While on a dual registration for Moseley, he shared in one of the surprise results of the 2008-09 season when helping the club to beat Leeds Carnegie 23-18 in the EDF Energy National Trophy final at Twickenham.

Educated at Kingshill School and Hartpury College, he played for Cirencester from the age of six and toured Australia with England Under 18s. He was a try-scorer in both the opening games in the 2009 Under 20s Six Nations’ Championship against Italy, in which he was man of the match, and Wales.

Henry’s years as a mini-junior at Cirencester bring back fond memories. He said: “I started with the under sixes and although I was involved in football at school for a time, I came back and played until colts’ level. So many people helped me while I was there, including Simon Collyer-Bristow and Chris Davies, who encouraged me to play running rugby.” 

His quest to reach Test status does have precedents at the Cirencester club, now 63 years old. Steve Mills played five times for England from 1981-84 and fellow Gloucester hooker Neil McCarthy, who won three caps in 1999-2000, are both ‘Ciren’ old boys.

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