Mathew Drew Turner ("Mat" for short) (born 18 January 1988) is a South African born

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player who currently plays for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby (MLR). He also played rugby sevens for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on the

Sevens World Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series 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 Sevens Series, the com ...

circuit between 2008 and 2013. He usually plays as a

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

or fullback. Turner played for in the inaugural

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each univers ...

season before joining the England sevens tour. He also played 15s rugby for

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

between 2008 and 2010, for the

Southern Kings The Southern Kings were a South African professional rugby union team that competed in Super Rugby and Pro14. They were based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province and played their home matches at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. They we ...

in their match against the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

in 2009, and for in 2015.

Career

Youth / Varsity Cup

Turner was born in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. He attended Western Province Preparatory School in Claremont and then Bishops College. He was a member of the 2006 Bishops first XV which also included Nick Köster and Martin Muller; he finished as the top scorer in school rugby the country during 2006, scoring 286 points in 20 matches, which included 28 tries. He was overlooked for provincial selection, however, not being included in 's squad for the 2006

Craven Week The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven. The to ...

competition. After finishing high school, he joined the Western Province Academy and represented the side during the 2007 Under-19 Provincial Championship. In 2008, he was included in the team that played in the inaugural edition of the

competition. He made an immediate impact for the side, scoring two late tries after coming on as a replacement in the first ever match in the competition, a 17–23 defeat to . He started all of their remaining seven matches in the competition, scoring a total of nine tries to finish as the top try scorer in the competition. His try-scoring feat also included a hat-trick against and he contributed a further seven points with the boot to finish sixth in the overall points scoring charts. He was also selected in a South African Under-20 training squad at the start of 2008, but eventually failed to make the final squad that participated at the

2008 IRB Junior World Championship The 2008 IRB Junior World Championship was the first annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. All players who were twenty years of age or under on 1 January 2008 were eligible for selection. This competition repla ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. In the latter half of 2008, he was a member of the squad that played in the 2008 Under-21 Provincial Championship.

Bristol

Towards the end of 2008, Turner moved to

to join Premiership side

. He made his first class debut for the side in the 2008–09 Anglo-Welsh Cup. He started on the left wing in their first round match against the

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...

and took just three minutes to score his first try for the club. He also scored a second midway through the first half, but could not prevent Bristol falling to a 17–30 defeat. He also played in their other two matches in the competition, but ended on the losing side on all three occasions. He also made his debut in the

against

, coming on as a second-half substitute to help Bristol achieve their first Premiership win, beating Northampton 14–13. He also played in matches against Saracens and

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

in the same competition. He made a further five appearances for the side following their relegation to the

2009–10 RFU Championship The 2009–10 RFU Championship was the 1st season (of the professionalised format) of the second division of the English domestic rugby union competitions, played between August 2009 and May 2010. The league had been restructured from the 16 team ...

and scored two tries, taking his total number of appearances for the side to eleven.

Southern Kings

He made an appearance for the newly formed South African Super Rugby franchise, the Port Elizabeth-based , in their first ever match on 16 June 2009 against the

during their 2009 tour to South Africa, with the Kings losing the match 8–20.

England Sevens

Turner qualified to play internationally for England through an English mother and was selected for the England sevens team for the first two legs of the

2009–10 IRB Sevens World Series The 2009–10 IRB Sevens World Series was the eleventh of an annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000. Samoa won the IRB Sevens World Series crown for their firs ...

. He immediately established himself as a regular in the England setup and eventually went on to play a total of 34

tournaments between 2009 and 2013, scoring 92 tries. In 2012, Turner was nominated for the

IRB Sevens Player of the Year The World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year is awarded by World Rugby each year. It was first awarded in 2004. The award is based in large part on the player’s performance over the course of the World Rugby Sevens Series, along with other Sevens to ...

award. He made the final shortlist of three with New Zealanders Tomasi Cama and

Frank Halai Frank Halai (born 6 March 1988) is a Tongan rugby union player who plays as a winger for the Austin Gilgronis in Major League Rugby (MLR). He previously played for Pau in the Top 14. and for Counties Manukau in the ITM Cup, and before that ...

. Cama won the award.

Western Province

Turner returned to South Africa in 2015 and joined the for pre-season training prior to the

2015 Super Rugby season The 2015 Super Rugby season was the 20th season of Super Rugby and the fifth season featuring an expanded 15-team format. For sponsorship reasons, this competition was known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New ...

. He wasn't included in their final squad for the competition, instead representing in the

2015 Vodacom Cup The 2015 Vodacom Cup was contested from 6 March to 30 May 2015. The tournament was the 18th edition of the Vodacom Cup, an annual domestic South African rugby union competition, and was played between the fourteen provincial teams in South Afric ...

. He made his first appearance in a first class domestic competition in South Africa in their opening match against the , contributing to a 25–10 victory against their

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

rivals.

Seattle Seawolves

In 2018, Turner played for the Seattle Seawolves in the first Major League Rugby season, and was awarded the Virginia Mason Alpha Back of the final championship match where the Seattle Seawolves won the championship and taking home the MLR shield.

Sri Lanka

In 2013/14 Turner played for the

Central Kings Central Kings (population: 329) is a rural municipality in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date o ...

in Sri Lanka at the Carlton International 7s tournament.

Coaching

In August 2015 he was appointed as the head coach of the Sri Lanka national rugby sevens team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Mathew 1988 births Living people Bristol Bears players Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players of England England international rugby sevens players English rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in the United States Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union players from Cape Town Rugby union wings Seattle Seawolves players South African expatriate rugby union players South African expatriate sportspeople in the United States South African people of British descent South African rugby union players Western Province (rugby union) players