Jet-heeled Carlin Isles aims to be America’s darlin’

‘I want to be great and show the world what I can do – I want to be one of the best XVs and Sevens players in the world.’
Not the claim of Dan Carter or Bryan Habana – modesty would prevent them both  – but of a player who until six months ago had never picked up a rugby ball and has still not played a game of XVs.
Meet Carlin Isles. A man not short on confidence or speed. Earlier this year Isles was a sprinter at the US Olympic trials with a personal  best of a wind-assisted 10.14 seconds when he came across Sevens on the internet.
Fast-tracked into the USA Sevens set-up in time for the first three legs of the HSBC Sevens Series, the YouTube compilation ‘Carlin Isles. Olympic Dream’ is what happened next. It attracted more than 1.2million views within five days of being posted and shows Isles repeatedly embarrassing some of the quickest men in either code. But that, Isles told The Rugby Paper, is just the start.
“I am the type of person who if I get a goal or vision  I am going to put everything I have into it and work my butt off,” he said. “I want to prove it to myself and to prove it to everyone.
“I know I can achieve anything if I put my mind to. I gave up track to play rugby and sacrificed a lot. I have to make it. I have put all my eggs in one basket.
“I believe in God and I believe in myself so much failure is not an option. I just have to work to get there.
“I always worked harder than everyone else. When people were sleeping I was working. I did not even go to my school prom because I was working. I always wanted to be the best and it is the same in rugby. I want to go to the Olympics and I want to play in XVs.”
The Rugby Paper first highlighted Isles in issue 214 but it was after his tries against France and South Africa in Dubai that his reputation has  taken off.
Since returning to the States, Isles has been inundated with calls from agents and has already received offers from Toulouse and Biarritz to train with them.
Even for a man used to living life in the fast lane the rate of his own progress has shocked him.
“I have really surprised myself especially in the short time I have been playing and what I have picked up,” he said. “The main challenge at first was just getting used to the pace, it is a different type of fitness compared to sprinting, but I just love the way the game is played.
“Knowing there’s a one on one situation when you can try to use your speed to beat opponents. Whenever I use God’s gift to show his glory and be great then that’s exciting to me.”
Isles’ journey may never have happened had Nigel Melville, chief executive of USA Rugby, not returned a text message from an unknown number.
Melville said: “I got a really random text saying ‘I want to play rugby how do I do that?’ It could have been anyone but it shows the value of returning text messages to unrecognised numbers!
“So we ended up exchanging texts and I asked him, ‘what are you doing at the minute?’ and he said, ‘I’m at the Olympic trials but I don’t think I am going to get in’.
“That’s when he really grabbed my attention. I just thought let’s give him a go, so he came along to our training and trained without any pressure. He picked it up very quickly.
“He has got something other people haven’t and that is true speed, but he also has  a burning desire to improve every day and he can go as far as he wants in this game.”
DANIEL SCHOFIELD
Watch the video below