Fitz Harding: From Durham fourths to Bristol captain and World Cup contender

Fitz Harding, Bristol’s 27-year-old captain, has emerged as an unexpected World Cup contender and set out his season goals ahead of his team’s trip to Saracens this weekend. "You can probably guess what they are," Harding said.

Harding, who writes his objectives on the first page of a new notebook at the start of each season, lists them plainly: "I want to win the Prem, I want to play for England, I want to go to the World Cup." Noted in the piece as intelligent and personable, he has made a rapid ascent from amateur university rugby to leading a Premiership side.

Only eight years ago Harding was playing in Durham University’s fourth XV, having not attracted county age-group or academy recognition, and he recalled bleak playing conditions at the University of Liverpool. "I don’t think anyone really saw it coming. I didn’t see it coming," he said, and he described a long-standing competitiveness that drove him to improve despite frustration at times.

Physically listed at 105kg and 6ft 2in, Harding is described in the article as tenacious and relentless in his work-rate, often wearing a scrum cap. The piece notes that England head coach Steve Borthwick already has established back-row options including Tom Curry, Henry Pollock, Ben Earl and Guy Pepper, while Bristol have beaten Curry’s Sale and Pollock’s Northampton and now face Earl’s Saracens, followed by Stormers, Exeter, Leicester and Bath.

Pat Lam called Harding "a coach’s dream," and team-mate Joe Batley praised his leadership: "Fitz has been captain for the last few years and it doesn’t take much to see why when you watch what he puts his body through on the pitch. You want to follow him and back him up." The article adds that, with Sam Underhill injured, Harding’s consistent performances and prior appearances for England A and the Barbarians make him harder to ignore.

Harding recounted arriving at Bristol on trial and training alongside established back-rowers such as Ben Earl, Dan Thomas and Nathan Hughes. "When I first came to Bristol, I never thought I was going to play professional rugby. When I left university [in 2021] I very nearly just got a normal job because, in my head, the gap was so big. But within the first few months of arriving I was like: 'Actually, the gap isn’t as big as I thought.' I started to think that if I put everything into it I could achieve some of the things I dreamed of when I was a child," he said, and senior players urged Lam to give him a contract.

Away from the pitch, Harding wrote his university dissertation on the introduction of public street lighting in London and said he is reading Fall of Civilisations by Paul Cooper: "It’s not a comedy." The article lists his three younger brothers—Dan, Alfie and Joe—one of whom works in banking, another in music production, and notes two are scratch golfers; his father, Peter, moved from an executive role at Suntory to become a yoga instructor, while his mother, Mog, works for a number of charities.

Harding says his priority remains proving he can compete at the highest level: "I want to show that I can compete at the highest level and to do that you have to be playing in big games. I’ve got to make myself impossible not to pick. That’s been my aim for this season." Bristol travel to Saracens this weekend, a venue the Bears have never won at, and the article concludes that another strong showing would place the selection decision with Borthwick.