Amateur brothers turn international after Google search

HITCHIN, England : In a world where people buy their clothes, hold meetings and find their lovers online, it was only a matter of time before somebody launched their international rugby career via the internet.

Brothers Dan and Ben Wiggins play their rugby at Hitchin Rugby Club, a community team in the south of England where no players are paid and 50 spectators and six dogs is regarded as a bumper crowd.

But on Saturday, the flyhalf and scrumhalf will play their second game for Denmark in a European Conference clash with Norway in Stavanger after starting their international rugby careers as much by speculative emails as tackles and tries.

It all began when Dan (26), and flyhalf Ben (24) were surfing the net during the COVID pandemic in 2020.

“We knew from childhood that our grandmother was Danish and that we had family in Denmark but sadly we had never managed to get over there," said Ben, who earns his living working for charity projects at professional English rugby club Saracens.

“We thought it would be a cool idea to play for a country and England was out of the question. So we did a bit of a search online to see how we could potentially qualify for Denmark and found some email contacts. The federation told us the criteria and we managed to meet all of it."

The brothers were asked to email a highlights video and Denmark’s South African-born coach Junaire Brown was impressed.

“He invited us out to trial in September 2022 and we were lucky enough to get called into the squad,” Dan said. “Two weeks later we played our debut game against Andorra.”

Father Martin Wiggins, who supported their interest in rugby as youngsters, admits he was sceptical that the online approach would work.

“I thought ‘Yea, right, that is going to