{"id":485353,"date":"2026-03-20T06:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T06:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485353\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T06:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T06:28:11","slug":"bristols-fitz-harding-puts-england-dream-on-the-back-burner-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485353\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol’s Fitz Harding puts England ‘dream’ on the back burner for now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bristol<\/a> Bears skipper Fitz Harding<\/a> admits that he would gladly sacrifice winning an England<\/a> cap this season for the chance to lift some silverware at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

The Bears, with eight games left, are third in the Gallagher PREM table, five points ahead of sixth-place Saracens<\/a> as the race to finish in the top four hots up when they visit Leicester<\/a> Tigers on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Back-row Harding, 26, was part of the Bears squad that lost a PREM semi-final to Bath<\/a> last season and says that it\u2019s time for them to take the next step, even at the expense of a lifelong dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery club in the Gallagher PREM will probably say the same thing. We want to be winning stuff, and we\u2019re focused on doing that. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince that semi-final against Quins, it has been about rebuilding, and I think we\u2019re in a really good place as a squad to then go and compete for those big titles.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Gallagher Premiership<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leicester <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bristol <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, there\u2019s so much that I can\u2019t control in terms of international call-ups, but people sometimes forget, we have never won the PREM before. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, to be part of the first squad to do that, to be the first Bristol captain to do that, would mean an incredible amount. I spoke about it at our meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, you know, this is it now for the next couple of months, these are the games that are going to really matter if we want to be the team that we think we can be. Now\u2019s the time to perform, and I think we\u2019re ready to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Harding, who has come from Durham University\u2019s fourth team, signed a new deal with the club in October, a month before winning two England caps against an All Blacks<\/a> XV and Spain.<\/p>\n

England coach Steve Borthwick<\/a> uses the A side as a feeder to the senior side, but Harding, who has made 97 starts out of 112 appearances for the Bears, isn\u2019t giving it much thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I\u2019d love to play for England. As a boy, that was always my dream. It\u2019s still my dream, like I said before. There\u2019s a lot I can\u2019t control.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the thing that I\u2019m putting my focus and energy into is making sure that I\u2019m the best possible captain, to give us the best possible chance of lifting silverware,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears skipper Fitz Harding admits that he would gladly sacrifice winning an England cap this season for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-485353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}