It’s fair to say that Tom Curry comes from an athletic family.
His grandfather John Olver was an England hooker, his twin brother Ben Curry is a Sale Sharks flanker and their cousin Sam Olver, a former England international fly-half, plays in the Championship for Doncaster Knights, an aunt played at the stick for Scotland. , their mother Susanne was an excellent netball player and her sister Charlotte represented Great Britain at Frisbee.
Another cousin, Pat Jarrett, is on the Stoke City Under-23 side. Nantwich central midfielder, like the Currys, he was called up for training camps in England and has been with Stoke since the under-nines.
Tom and Ben had trials at Manchester City, were part of the Cheshire cricketing path as teenagers and learned rugby at Crewe & Nantwich.
Now Tom is 23, a 36-time cap flanker who has appeared in a World Cup final and was today named England captain for this weekend’s opening Six Nations game against England. ‘Scotland.
He will be England’s youngest captain since Will Carling, in the absence of Owen Farrell and Courtney Laws.
Coach Eddie Jones said: “Captain is not about the number of caps.
“The captain is a person who can lead a group of players on the pitch, lead by example. And there’s no better player on our team than Tom Curry to do that.
“He leads by example. He reminds me of a young Richie McCaw who was able to lead by example and as he progresses there will be other pieces of his captaincy that will go with that.
“But at the start of his career, it’s all about leading by example and putting the team in the spotlight. This is how we want to play the game.
“No different from Owen [Farrell], players like to play with this kind of players who lead by example. Tom has an opportunity, hopefully Courtney will be back at some point, but for this week Tom is the most important player to fill that big spot.
(Image: Sentinel)
In 2019, proud dad David Curry, who himself played for Crewe & Nantwich, looked back on those formative years.
He said: “He loved those years at Crewe & Nantwich and I think it shaped him not only as a player but also as a character.
“My wife and I are so proud of who he has become, he knows the responsibility that comes with putting on that white shirt and he always makes time for the supporters after the game.
“Those values have been instilled in Tom and Ben from their days at the club. Every time we see him sing the national anthem we are in absolute pieces.
Tom went to Wistaston Church Lane Primary School and Bishop Heber High School in Malpas, where David is headmaster.
(Image: Jeremy Selwyn – via WPA Pool/Getty Images)
(Image: Dan Mullan – RFU/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)
David said: “They were doing so much sport that we had to feed them, so I sent them to school with a bag of bagels, a box of rice pudding and peaches every day.”
He added: “I was their coach from age four to sixteen at the club and at Bishop Heber High School.
“I used to play them at fly-half and center and they were also my kickers at Crewe and Nantwich, so they loved having the ball in their hands and you can still see that now.
“They were competitive and sometimes it was over the top, but they were also incredibly supportive of each other and still are.”
