Rugby League: Paul on quick learning curve after switch from league

By CHRIS RATTUE

Henry Paul, who ranks among English rugby's most significant catches from the "other code," is just one of many rugby league strands in their sevens team.

New Zealand and England are separated in the pool section of the Games sevens competition, which starts tomorrow.

New Zealand face Canada, Scotland and Niue Island. England are with the Cook Islands, Samoa and Kenya.

But former Kiwi test player Paul could face his countrymen for the first time later in the competition in Manchester.

The 28-year-old Paul, who once played in an under-17 national rugby league side with New Zealand sevens speedster Roger Randle, joined English rugby for what is reported to be at least $600,000 a season.

He made his international debut as a replacement centre in a defeat by France in this year's Six Nations.

Paul was also one of the many players England, who are captained by Lions hooker Phil Greening, have used on the sevens circuit as they built a squad for Manchester.

Rugby league conspiracists swear English rugby wants to attack their battling code of the north to create another rugby stronghold, and are using the Games to this end.

Rugby characters deny this, and in fairness the top-level sevens game appears made for players and coaches with quality league backgrounds.

The English sevens team are coached by the outstanding former Great Britain league fullback Joe Lydon, and his assistant, Damian McGrath, also comes from that code.

And most significantly, the English have drafted in Marcus St Hilaire, who cannot even find a place in the Leeds rugby league side and is to be released at the end of this season after a lengthy hamstring injury.

"I thought it was a wind-up when I was first approached, but sevens is easier for me to play than the 15-a-side game would have been," St Hilaire said. "It is more league-based."

Paul qualified for England through his Liverpool-born maternal grandfather, Bill Allen, who now lives in Auckland.

As might be expected, Paul, who played for top league sides Wigan and Bradford and in 23 Kiwi tests, says he has struggled with some aspects of his new code.

He has been playing at fullback, but centre and even first five-eighths could become his home.

Whereas rugby league is now a summer game in England, rugby is still played when the fields slow down a game that has not been known for its zippiness in England.

"I found the game very slow and you can end up just doing a lot of covering work," Paul said.

"But they are trying to change the way it is played here."

He has also had problems with aspects such as the tackled-ball zone, although he is hardly alone in that.

"I've got no regrets at all about making the change [to union]. I wanted to try something different when my body was in good enough shape that I'd have a fair crack at it," he said.

Paul has already tasted international success, starring as England won the Hong Kong sevens, and he also played in the London tournament.

Paul plays for the Gloucester club owned by Tom Walkinshaw, who also owns the battling Arrows Formula One racing team.

He has not had to cross a class divide between northern rugby league and the upper-crust values and bank accounts of southern rugby.

The seaport town on the Severn River in south-west England is not exactly tea at Twickers. Gloucester is decidedly working class.

So it will be Henry Paul, of Gloucester and England, who might line up against the New Zealand sevens.

Full coverage:
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