England’s Matt Turner to coach the Sri Lanka 7’s

205

South African born but played for England Matthew Drew Turner will be landing in the island for his new task as a coach ahead of Asia 7’s tournament which will take place in Qingdao, Bangkok and Colombo.

Turner qualified to play for England through his English mother although he was born in South Africa. He was in the South African under 20 training squad in 2008. Then he was a member of the Western Province U21 team in 2008. Later in 2008 he moved to England to join the premiership club Bristol.

Turner was selected to play in the England sevens team for the IRB sevens World Series 2009/10. His impressive showcasing was enough to seal him a regular place in the team as he went on to score 92 tries until 2013. He was also nominated for the IRB sevens player of the year in 2012 together with Frank Halai and Tomsai Cama, but Cama won the award at the end.

He was also in Sri Lanka at the Carlton International 7s tournament playing for the Central Kings in 2013/14. Early this year he was training with the Super XV club Stormers in the pre-season and played for the Western Province in the Vodacom Cup.