Bristol skipper Fitz Harding has gone from university fourth-team rugby to leading a Prem side, and he is not stopping until he plays for England.
Few people saw Fitz Harding's rise coming, and the Bristol flanker admits he was one of them. The 27-year-old started out in Durham University's fourth XV. Now he captains one of the Premiership's most ambitious clubs, with a World Cup place firmly in his sights.
Every season, Harding opens a fresh notebook and writes his goals on the first page. They have barely changed in years: win the Prem, play for England, go to the World Cup. He says it with the ease of someone reading out a shopping list, and the confidence suggests he means every word.
He is also clear that a squad call-up is not the target. Being named in an England group ahead of the November Tests would mean little to him if it did not lead to a cap. He wants to pull on the shirt and play, not be remembered as a player who was once selected. As he sees it, nobody writes an obituary line about a single squad invitation.
That hunger, plus his intelligence and easy leadership, is why many are reluctant to bet against him. Bristol travel to Saracens on Saturday afternoon, and it is another chance for Harding to show the form that has taken him from the lowest rung of university rugby to the front of a top-flight pack.
