Ben Kay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ben Kay
Full name	Benedict James Kay
Date of birth	1975-12-14
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Height	1.98 m
Weight	112 kg
Rugby union career
Position	Lock
Professional clubs		Caps	(points)
1999-	Leicester Tigers	111	(35)
correct as of 13 Sept 2006.
National team(s)
2001- 2005	England British and Irish Lions	41 1	(10) (0)
correct as of 13 Sept 2006.
Other Information
School  attended	Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby
University	Loughborough University
Notable relatives	Sir John Kay (father)

Benedict James Kay MBE (born 14 December 1975) is an English international rugby union footballer who plays lock forward for Leicester Tigers and England.

Kay was born in Liverpool, the son of High Court Judge Sir John William Kay (1943 — 2004), which later earned him the nickname "M'lud". Ben first started playing rugby for Waterloo minis. He also went on to play for the Waterloo first team. He played for his school (Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby) and has also played for Queensland University. He represented England in the 1996 Students World Cup in South Africa and at U18, U19 and U21 level. He also attended Loughborough University, where he obtained his degree in Sports Science.

He joined Leicester Tigers from Waterloo in 1999 and first played during the world cup, with Tiger's normal locks Martin Johnson and Fritz van Heerden away with England and South Africa respectively. With the help of Johnson and van Heerden, he developed his game becoming a highly-rated middle line-out jumper, like van Heerden. He was a member of Tigers’ Heineken Cup winning sides in 2001 and 2002 as his international career blossomed.

Having made his England A debut against France A in Blagnac in 2000 he led England A to a 23-22 win over France A at Redruth in April 2001, and was called up for England’s successful tour of North America and Japan that summer. He made his England debut against Canada on 2 June 2001. He displaced Danny Grewcock from the England side.

After another outstanding season he was named as the Tigers Members' Player of the Year 2001/2, and was a nominee for the Zurich Premiership Player of the Year. He was in the starting line-up for all the Six Nations games in spring 2002, and scored a try against Ireland. After touring with England to Argentina in the summer of 2002, where he scored his second try, Ben went on to compete in both the Autumn internationals and the Six Nations, before touring to New Zealand and Australia in June 2003.

He confirmed his status as a core part of the England squad in the World Cup when he played every minute of every England game except the game against Uruguay. During the final against Australia, Kay famously knocked-on (dropped the ball forwards) in a try-scoring position when a try would have almost certainly meant an England win. Fortunately for him England won regardless.

More recently, he appeared twice as a replacement in the Autumn series in 2004.