It is almost 18 months since Rhys Norrington-Davies’s name was up in lights in the headmaster’s weekly newsletter at Royal Russell school in Croydon, celebrating his first call-up to the Wales senior squad. It was there that he achieved A-levels in maths, physics and geology, and was accepted into Southampton University to study civil engineering and architecture, at a time when being part of a Premier League promotion push felt rather unlikely.
“Education was my main focus and the thought of getting back into football was a bonus,” he says. “I was preparing to go to uni. Growing up I used to like structures, building sandcastles on the beaches, so I always had an interest for it.”
But then Sheffield United came calling with a professional contract and the defender, released by Swansea at 16, returned to the game, via the Kinetic Academy programme, from which Joe Aribo, Josh Maja and Kwadwo Baah also progressed.
Norrington-Davies made his United debut in August after productive loans in the Championship with Luton and then Stoke last season. They followed spells with Rochdale and Barrow, the latter in non-league.
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“I needed to go out and get regular first-team football. The loans were ideal because I was new to the game, raw and they enabled me to develop my game. At the rate Sheffield United have progressed in recent years, finding themselves in the Premier League, I had to raise my standards. I’d like to think I’ve improved massively over the last two or three years but there is still room for progression.”
Norrington-Davies spent the majority of his childhood in Aberystwyth, west Wales, attending a Welsh primary school, but was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He spent two and a half years in Nairobi because his father, Patrick, who grew up in the village of Dol-y-bont, was based in Kenya with the British army. His mother, Lowri, hails from Tre’r-ddol, another nearby village. The family returned home when Norrington-Davies was seven but he has fond memories of his time in Africa.
“It’s not your typical upbringing. I’ve got some friends who have since moved back to the UK, who I still keep in touch with to this day. It was a great experience – it is very different to the UK, that’s for sure. I saw everything, from the coast, Mombasa, to the Masai Mara. I did all the safari tours but more wild camping. It was a fantastic childhood.”
View image in fullscreenRhys Norrington-Davies leaps during a Wales training session last November. Photograph: Athena Pictures/Getty Images
After joining Luton in September 2020, he targeted a senior Wales call-up by the end of the season but, a month later, he made his debut against Bulgaria. Norrington-Davies has six caps and is set to be part of the squad to face Austria in a World Cup semi-final play-off this month. He played with Daniel James and Joe Rodon, among others, at under-21 level and Tyler Roberts, who will miss the game after hamstring surgery, and Rabbi Matondo, at under-15s. These days the Wales manager, Robert Page, is on his doorstep in Sheffield. “He played for Sheffield United so I’m sure he’s down at the games. It is down to myself to keep playing well and to do my thing on the pitch to keep myself in the setup. It will be a great camp to be a part of. It is a massive game.”
The immediate focus is on Sheffield United’s trip to Coventry, another team chasing a play-off spot, on Saturday after Tuesday’s impressive 4-1 win over Chris Wilder’s Middlesbrough, managed by his former boss Chris Wilder, on Tuesday. The Blades have soared to fifth after one defeat in 12 matches. Since the former under-23s coach Paul Heckingbottom took charge in November, Norrington-Davies has flourished at wing-back in a 3-5-2 familiar to supporters at Bramall Lane from Wilder’s extraordinary reign en route to the Premier League.
“He’s got us working hard again,” the 22-year-old says of Heckingbottom, who replaced Slavisa Jokanovic. “We’ve got an honest group of players here with good quality as well. Every manager has a different philosophy and this is something the current manager is massive on.”
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Norrington-Davies, who turns 23 next month, is surrounded by several players who have been here before, including the defender John Egan, the midfielder Oliver Norwood, who is targeting a fourth promotion from this division, building on previous successes with Brighton, Fulham and Sheffield United, and the evergreen 36-year-old captain, Billy Sharp, the Championship’s all-time leading goalscorer. But the 22-year-old Wolves loanee Morgan Gibbs-White scored the pick of the goals in midweek, nonchalantly flicking home Ben Osborn’s cross. Heckingbottom has lost only two league games to help the Blades to within five points of second-placed Bournemouth, who have two games in hand.
It is five years since Norrington-Davies captained Royal Russell, where he boarded, to the ISFA (Independent Schools Football Association) Cup at Stadium MK, beating Millfield in a game officiated by the Premier League referee Martin Atkinson. Now the top flight is in sight. “If you had asked me five years ago: ‘Do you think you would be where you are today?’ I would probably say ‘no’ – but things change quickly in football and I’m glad of it.”
