Birmingham City star Scott Sinclair is happy to have kicked rugby into touch

Jan 31 2009 By Andy Walker

SCOTT Sinclair admits that he kicked his West Country sporting roots into touch a long time ago.

Blues’ flying winger was born and raised in the historic city of Bath, an area that’s usually recognised for rugby stars rather than footballers.

Guinness Premiership outfit Bath Rugby Club have much more pulling power in Sinclair’s home-city rather than its two non-League football teams.

Even in the city where England Under-21 wannabe Sinclair kick-started his career, Bristol, sports fans are more likely to be talking about the club who use the oval-shaped ball rather than Rovers or City.

However, 19-year-old Sinclair insists his heart always belonged to the 11-a-side game.

“I used to play rugby and I was a full-back,” said the forward, who is on-loan from Chelsea. “They wanted me to go down that path but football was always the number one for me.

“I was quite good at rugby, we got to the English Schools finals and won that one year. I just played with my school. If I was going to go down that road it would have been Bath Rugby but it was definitely a no-go because I wanted to play football.

“Obviously I used to take all the kicks when I did play rugby. There