His
youth rugby had been played at Truro, joining the city club at the age of 12,
and making progress through the juniors and colts before he made a 1st team debut
as a blind-side flanker in a league match against St. Ives. When
at Richard Lander School he played for Cornwall at 16 group level, following the
path of his brother Daniel who was also a hooker. Other members in a strong county
side were Scott Hobson, Sam Parsons, Mike Provis, Mike Rawlings and Gareth Tedstone. Darren
became a member of the South West of England Rugby Academy (SWERA) based at Truro,
and he also gained selection to the England Colleges team in 2005. He played for
England Colleges again in 2006, and also captained the Truro College team that
beat Filton in the final of the British Colleges Cup competition played at Castlecroft. During
his first season with the Cornish Pirates, Darren had a loan spell playing for
Redruth in National Two, not letting either them or us down. Showing strength
and mobility, he notched up an impressive five tries in nine games for the 'Reds',
and was proudly named 'Man of the Match' when playing Cambridge. It was one of
the highlights in his brief rugby career to date, as was selection the same season
for the England U20s Development squad, him the only player not associated with
a Premiership club. He
made four appearances for the Cornish Pirates from the bench in his first season
with us, his focus now to keep developing and earn more game time in 2007-08. The
name 'Dawidiuk' is Ukrainian, his grandfather- arriving in Cornwall at the end
of World War 2 - sensibly married a Cornish maid! | 
