England lock out of retirement and aiming for recall - Ruck

England lock out of retirement and aiming for recall

Powerhouse forward Dom Barrow has come out of retirement and is aiming for an England recall after signing with Sale Sharks.

The towering 28-year-old, who was part of the England under 20s team that won the IRB Junior World Championship in 2013, joined Sharks initially on trial in January after two years without a club.

Dominic had retired from rugby in 2020 to run a firm specialising in installing electric vehicle charging points.

However, he is now targeting an England recall and a first senior cap.

“I feel it’s almost a defence mechanism to go: ‘We’ll see what happens’,” revealed Barrow in an exclusive interview with the Telegraph.

“I spoke to Al [Sanderson, the Sale director of rugby] a few weeks ago. I said I’d got through the first stage, completing the trial earning the contract. As a DoR, he wouldn’t want me to just sit back and earn money, but I hope it didn’t come across the wrong way when said I wanted to change the rhetoric from being the trialist that is now a Sale Sharks player to being the guy that was the marquee player at Northampton Saints and a future England international. 

“I feel like I have the ability to do that. Equally, the mentality shift is that, having gone through an age-group system and played with all these boys that are playing [for England], I always felt that it would just happen. There was a big realisation, stepping away from the game, that it was me that had to make it happen.  

“There’s no entitlement. No one is going to give it to you. You’ve got to go and excel at Premiership level. You’ve got to be the hardest worker, the best trainer, do more than is expected in a domestic environment in order to achieve that. It’s not enough to follow protocol and hold your own in the Premiership and expect it to happen.  

“I’m really aware of the challenge. And it may or may not happen. I’ve got to work incredibly hard. At the same time, I don’t understand why anyone would say otherwise, to be honest.” 

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