Never has the term colt been more applicable to rugby than with the selection of Jonno Balding — the 6ft 10in nephew of the TV presenter Clare Balding and son of horse racing royalty — by England Under-20.
Balding, 19, is among the 32-player training squad that have travelled to Portugal for a four-day training camp this week. The second row is in line to feature against Bath United at the Rec on January 24, before England begin their Under-20 Six Nations campaign against Wales at Franklin’s Gardens on February 6.
Though Gloucester have struggled this season and lie ninth in the Gallagher Prem, they are well represented in the under-20s, as Balding is one of five players from the club in Vilamoura. He is also not the only familiar surname in the party: Sonny Tonga’uiha, son of the former Northampton Saints prop Soane, and Tyler Offiah, son of Martin, are involved too.
Jonno with his father Andrew, the horse racing trainer, at Ascot last summer
MAUREEN MCLEAN/SHUTTERSTOCK
The Balding family has history in rugby as well as horse racing. The association with the latter means Jonno grew up in rarefied social circles. Marcus Armytage, the winning jockey in the 1990 Grand National, tells a tale of the four-year-old seeing Queen Elizabeth II at Kingsclere, home of the family stables, and asking her: “Where’s your crown?” At Newbury two days later, the Queen saw him again, gestured to her yellow hat and asked: “Is this better?”
Balding’s aunt, Clare, is one of the country’s most recognisable TV presenters. His father, Andrew, succeeded his own father, Ian, as the licensed trainer at Kingsclere in 2003. Jonno’s great-great-grandfather, Aubrey Hastings (he had as middle names Craven Theophilus Robin Hood), trained three winners of the National.
Ian Balding might have played more rugby were it not for his responsibilities as a trainer, including for the late Queen and Queen Mother, making 92 appearances for Bath in the backs between 1956 and 1966. He died on January 2 this year, aged 87.
Jonno with his auntie Clare and father Andrew at the darts
Jonno Balding is a product of Radley College, where he was more of a cricketing all-rounder until the age of 13, though his father had taken him to Overton RFC in Hampshire long before that. He has already been on under-18 national tours and has signed an academy contract with Gloucester, alongside his degree in politics and international relations at the University of Bristol.
In an interview last year, Clare Balding said her nephew was eligible for Wales through his grandmother.
Injured Fin Smith in Six Nations fitness race
Smith is not expected to feature for Saints again before England’s opener against Wales
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Fin Smith could be a doubt for the start of the Six Nations as the calf injury he sustained last week is expected to keep him out for at least the next two weeks, writes John Westerby. Smith, the England fly half, was a late withdrawal from Northampton Saints’ Champions Cup match away to Bordeaux Bègles last Sunday.
He will miss the game at home to Scarlets on Sunday and is not likely to play for his club before the Six Nations. England’s first game is at home to Wales on February 7, with Steve Borthwick, the head coach, due to name his squad a week on Friday.
“Fin is dealing with a calf strain. We’re still waiting to see how long that is from a scan point of view,” Phil Dowson, the Northampton director of rugby, said. “It’s probably a minimum of two [weeks], but with a muscle injury it’s hard to give a timeline. It’s not going to be months and months, and it’s not going to be this weekend, so somewhere in between.”
With George Ford restored as Borthwick’s first-choice fly half, Smith did not play in the final two autumn internationals, against New Zealand and Argentina, after starting at No10 against Fiji, but he has been in excellent form for Northampton, who are top of the Gallagher Prem at the halfway point of the season.