Graham Rowntree

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Graham Rowntree
Full name	Graham Christopher Rowntree
Date of birth	1971-04-18
Place of birth	Stockton-on-Tees, England
Height	1.83 m
Weight	109 kg
Rugby union career
Position	Prop
Professional clubs
1990-	Leicester Tigers
correct as of 13 Sept 2006.
National team(s)		Caps	(points)
1995- 1997,2005	England British and Irish Lions	54 0	(0) (0)
correct as of 13 Sept 2006.

Graham Christopher Rowntree (born. 18 April 1971) is an English international rugby union footballer who plays loosehead prop for Leicester Tigers and England. Perhaps more remarkable is that his 45 caps came during the career of the world's 2nd most capped player, Jason Leonard.

Rowntree was born in Stockton-on-Tees. He was educated at John Cleveland College, which has produced other rugby union players, and was known as "Wiggy" because of an unfortunate haircut.

He has been with Leicester Tigers since 1988, joining them from Nuneaton. He made his full debut against Oxford University in 1990. For much of that time he was in harness with the famous ‘ABC club’ alongside Richard Cockerill and Darren Garforth.

In ‘93 he made his England A, Barbarians and Midlands debuts, and on 18 March 1995 he gained his first full England cap against Scotland in the Five Nations tournament as a temporary replacement for Jason Leonard He subsequently played in the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup. He also made the 1997 Lions tour of South Africa, playing six games and the 99 World Cup.

After the ’99 World Cup Graham was not capped for almost 2 years until a series of imperious performances for his club forced him back into international contention. He was selected for the England squad to tour Canada and the USA in 2001; participated in all that season's Autumn internationals being named as the man of the match in England's 21-15 Cook Cup victory over Australia, and capped in each of the Six Nations games.

He was prominent throughout the pre World Cup years, starting in all of England's Six Nations games in 2002 and in England's 15-13 win over New Zealand in Wellington in 2003. He put in a particularly memorable performance against the All Blacks when England's pack was reduced to just 6 men. Despite playing in the 2003 pre-World Cup trial match in France, Rowntree was omitted from Clive Woodward's squad which won the tournament. Clive Woodward admitted that to leave Rowntree behind was one of the hardest decisions he had to make in all his years as England head coach.

However, he returned to the England side in 2004 Six Nations and became first choice loosehead prop for the 2004 Autumn internationals.

[edit] External links

• Rowntree @ Planet Rugby Player stats from Planet Rugby
• Sporting heroes