Perry Freshwater

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Perry Thomas Freshwater (born 27 July 1973 in Wellington, New Zealand) is an English rugby union footballer. He is a loosehead prop and occasional hooker.

He started playing rugby union as a five year old for the Wellington club and later played for New Zealand Schoolboys against Welsh Schoolboys in Christchurch in 1990. He also played for the New Zealand U19 and U21 teams before deciding to spend a year in England playing for Leicester Tigers.

He made his debut against Nottingham in 1995 and went on to make over 130 appearances for Tigers, many of them off the bench. The presence of England international Graham Rowntree prevented Freshwaater from establishing himself properly in the Tigers' team, and eventually he moved to France to further his career.

He qualified for England through his Walthamstow-born father (he also had met the three year residency requirement). In 2003, he picked up his first England A cap when he played against France in Perpignan. He went on to join USA Perpignan for the 2002–03 season. He was in the Perpignan team that lost to Stade Français in that season’s French Club Championship final. Perry went with the England A team to Canada for the Churchill Cup and became Vice-Captain. The following year he was made Captain of the squad for the Churchill Cup match.

He made his international debut from the replacements bench during the 40-3 victory over Samoa in November 2005. He won a further two caps during the 2006 Six Nations Championships.

Perry has his own Appreciation Society that watch his games in various countries. The Perry Freshwater Appreciation Society (PFAS) is made up of Gilly (Chairman and Co-founder), Thingo (President and Co-founder), Hot Rod (Press Officer) and Deano (who is a complete and utter steve). The PFAS have been to 8 games in 5 different countries.^{[citation needed]}