{"id":227494,"date":"2025-10-20T13:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227494\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:01:13","slug":"ex-england-winger-opens-up-on-his-one-big-rugby-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227494\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-England winger opens up on his one big rugby regret"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cross-code star Denny Solomona<\/a> has spoken of his frustration that his England<\/a> career ended at five caps.<\/p>\n

Solomona was capped by England within a year of his \u00a3200,000 transfer from Castleford in rugby league to Sale Sharks<\/a> in rugby union in December 2016.<\/p>\n

As a finisher of the highest order, the Auckland-born winger promptly announced his arrival on the Test stage with a match-winning try on debut in Argentina<\/a> in June 2017, following Marland Yarde<\/a>, Jonny May<\/a> and George Ford<\/a> over the whitewash.<\/p>\n

But while Ford went on to become an England centurion, Solomona made just four more Test appearances, the second Test in Argentina and three in South Africa<\/a> a year down the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was competing with Anthony Watson<\/a>, Jonny May<\/a>, Elliot Daly<\/a>, all at their peak. They were playing Lions, playing really well at their clubs and consistently for England. It was tough as they were growing up through England, they\u2019d done all the U18s and 20s together,\u201d says Solomona in the current issue of Rugby Journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably just the wrong time, the wrong everything really, but that\u2019s nothing against those guys, they were all playing amazing. I\u2019d never say I should have been playing in front of a certain person, because every one of them had their own right to play in that jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201d I realise now that you have got to take every opportunity, and unfortunately, I might not have done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a goal, but I wish I\u2019d reframed my goal, because once I hit it, it was like there was nothing else to achieve and that\u2019s no fault of anyone else but myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became an international rugby player. That had been my goal for the longest time. Once I had played for England, I didn\u2019t know what was next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a mindset that I had, that\u2019s what killed me; maybe I should have made it my ambition to be the best England winger. That\u2019s my only regret in rugby, not being able to shift that mental goal that I had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomona had a brief spell with the Highlanders<\/a> in Super Rugby before returning to live in the UK, where he now coaches Orrell in England\u2019s lower leagues.<\/p>\n

Once runners-up in the league to Bath, Orrell became one of the many victims of professionalism and tumbled down the rugby pyramid. They now participate in the Lancashire and Cheshire leagues.<\/p>\n

Solomona is a week shy of his 32nd birthday but has no desire to lace up his boots again. Coaching the black and ambers, though, has helped to reinvigorate his love for rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough coming here to coach, I feel like I have found a bit more respect and passion for the game,\u201d he said in the eight-page feature interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had a kind of love-hate relationship with rugby, because I have done this for so long, it is all I ever knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom taking a step back and then going back into rugby with Orrell, it\u2019s kind of rejuvenated that whole reason why, as a young kid, I started playing rugby in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full Denny Solomona interview in the new issue of coffee-table print quarterly Rugby Journal, available to order now by clicking here >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cross-code star Denny Solomona has spoken of his frustration that his England career ended at five caps. Solomona…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-227494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}