Daniel John Norton (born 22 March 1988) is a former

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. He is the leading all-time try scorer in the

World Rugby Sevens 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 ...

with over 350 tries, beating the previous record of 244 held by Kenya's

Collins Injera Collins Injera (born 18 October 1986) is a Kenyan rugby player. He holds the second place for number of tries scored on the World Rugby Sevens Series with 271. He is known for his achievements with Kenyan national rugby sevens team. Career In ...

at the 2017 Hong Kong Sevens tournament. A product of

Hartpury College Hartpury University and Hartpury College, formerly Hartpury College, is a provider of further and higher education which describes itself as specialising in the "agriculture, animal, equine, sport and veterinary nursing" sectors. The university a ...

, Norton played most of his career as a winger. Norton was part of the

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

academy and dual registered with

Moseley Moseley is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants. The area also has a number of boutiques and ot ...

for both the 2007–08 and 2008–09 seasons. Moving on to

Bristol Bears Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 1 ...

(Previously Bristol Rugby) from the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons. Norton won a silver medal at the

Rio 2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

, he scored a try in the final, but was unable to prevent a 43-7 drubbing by Fiji. He helped the England rugby sevens team secure bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

with a 21-14 win over South Africa and the same side that won silver at the

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...

in San Francisco 2018.

International

Norton helped England U20s to a Six Nations Grand Slam title in 2008. He also competed for the England U18s in the 2006–07 season.

Sevens career

Norton made his sevens debut 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 ...

in 2009. During the 2010–2011 season, Norton's main focus was on rugby sevens, playing in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

and a regular in the IRB Sevens World Series. Norton has been a core-contracted Sevens player to the RFU since the 2011–12 season. Norton scored 37 tries in the 2011–12 series – second only to England teammate Mat Turner with 38. In December 2012, Norton scored his 100th career try for England against Scotland in Port Elizabeth,

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 ...

. Norton led all try-scorers in the 2012–13 season with 52 tries. He is top of the all-time list of try scorers on the

. Norton possesses great speed, the ability to sidestep off either foot and the ability to kick off both feet. Norton is one of the quickest players on the 7s circuit, with a personal best for the 40m of 4.78 seconds. Norton announced his retirement from rugby in April 2022 following the Vancouver sevens.

Club

Norton made his name at

where his dynamic performances on the wing and at fullback earned him a senior contract with

from 2007 to 2009. He played for

, while on loan from Gloucester, between 2007 and 2009. In 2009, He helped Moseley win the EDF National Trophy when he scored a try against Leeds in the final at Twickenham. In April 2009, it was announced that Norton would be joining

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 ...

for the next season. Norton played the start of the 2009–2010 for Bristol and soon established himself as the top scorer, as Bristol reached the Championship play-off final in 2010, going on to win the British & Irish Cup in 2011. However, after returning from England sevens duty his time with the different format seemed to lose his edge, and was not given enough time to convert, becoming a bit part player for the rest of the season. Although he re-established himself in the B&I Cup winning Bristol side at the end of the 2010–11 season, he was not included in the Bristol retained players list announced at the end of May 2011. Norton joined

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

on a short-term contract in August 2020. He was an ambassador for

Mizuno () is a Japanese sports equipment and sportswear company, founded in Osaka in 1906 by Rihachi Mizuno. Today, Mizuno is a global corporation which makes a wide variety of sports equipment and sportswear for badminton, baseball, boxing, cycling ...

Honours

Moseley

* National Trophy: 2009

Bristol

* British and Irish Cup: 2011

England

* Dubai 7s: 2011

References

External links

*
Gloucester Rugby profile

England 7s profile

Dan Norton YouTube Highlights
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Dan 1988 births Living people English rugby union players Gloucester Rugby players Moseley Rugby Football Club players Black British sportspeople England international rugby sevens players Rugby union players from Gloucester Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players of Great Britain Great Britain national rugby sevens team players Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Bristol Bears players English people of South African descent Male rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players of England Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics