Dom ‘the Duke’ Waldouck needs no introductions. The difficulty arises in summation for a man who has done so much in so few years. Type his name into Google and you’ll be swamped with pages, all jostling in line to show you where the Duke has been and what the Duke has done. Yes, there are the 180 odd Premiership caps, an appearance for England Saxons and the two Wasps Players’ Player Awards, these things are all covered in the Wiki article. But dig deeper, there be gold under the surface: Dom’s achievements cover broader horizons.
You could speak of his childhood successes, appearing on GMTV on the portion called ‘working out with Mr. Motivator’ amongst other things, or his school years, where he played Cricket and Football in professional set ups. But this is still shallow ground. The Duke was also Mr. February in the ‘Rugby’s Finest Hunks 2011 calendar’, with one journalist stating that Dom makes ‘the temperature in February a lot hotter than usual, look at those huge legs. Woof!’ Dom’s chiselled features have seen him model for several clothing brands, and be named the 59th best looking man on earth by an online poll, admittedly run by his mother. His trademark look has brought many admirers at OURFC, not least Will Thornton: the latest to take on the ‘tash'.
Somehow though, with all his fame, talents and dubious polls, the Duke has managed to keep a low profile at OURFC so far. This may be in part due to that fact that he’s gone undercover as a 21 year old undergrad who loves tunes from the noughties and how cool it is to be a 90’s baby – ‘alternative facts’ eagerly believed by Americans in particular.
Dom brings a wealth of experience to OURFC, and has fast become a source of advice and support both on and off the pitch; he will be invaluable for this year’s Varsity Campaign.