Stephen Jones meets Leicester centre Dan Hipkiss as England search for the answers to their midfield injury woes, in The Sunday Times.
"It was at first an exercise in nostalgia. Danny Hipkiss, even though he had a fist clenched around a drinks bottle containing one of the modern high-tech concoctions (in this case coloured lurid red) was going back in time. I asked him to trace the origins of his quick feet. They are two of the fastest in rugby, giving him a priceless ability, using dazzling footwork, to make breaks through the midfield almost in the style of the breaking centres of old.
"Let’s see. There was the inspiration of Chris, his father, who was good enough to make England Under-16s and who was an admirer of the twinkle-footed Phil Bennett, whose electrifying sidestepping set off that Barbarians try. “We used to watch videos of Phil Bennett.”
"Then there was the family garden. “We had a line of trees in it, and Dad used to get me to run along and to step in and out of them.”
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