Will Greenwood

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Will Greenwood
Full name William John Heaton Greenwood
Date of birth 1972-10-20
Place of birth Blackburn, Lancashire, England
Height 1.93 m
Weight 100 kg
Rugby union career
Position Centre
Professional clubs Caps (points)
1996-2000
1994-96,2000-06		 Leicester Tigers
Harlequins		 25
151		 (70)
(307)
correct as of 14 Sept 2006.
National team(s)    
1997-2004
1997-2001-2005		 England
British and Irish Lions		 55
3		 (155)
(0)
correct as of 14 Sept 2006.
Other Information
University University of Durham

William John Heaton Greenwood MBE (born October 20, 1972 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is a former English rugby union player. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, then Sedbergh School.

He played in the centres, mainly at inside-centre, although he was able to perform extremely well at outside-centre, as he showed on a number of occasions. However, he always wore the No. 13 shirt, this because of superstition.

He plays his club rugby for the Harlequins, having also played for Preston Grasshoppers, Waterloo and Leicester Tigers. He graduated with a BA in Economics from Hatfield College, Durham in 1994.

His father Dick Greenwood played at flanker for and later coached the England Rugby Union team. He left Harlequins and moved to Leicester Tigers in 1996 because the presence of England centre Will Carling meant he could not get first team rugby.

Despite some impressive performances for Leicester in 1997, he was overlooked by the England coach Jack Rowell, but was selected for the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa still uncapped, and ahead of then England captain Phil de Glanville. During the tour, he swallowed his tongue on the pitch after a collision and stopped breathing for several minutes, and did not play in any of the tests. He also toured with the Lions in 2001 but injury again prevented him from playing.

Subsequently picked by new England coach and ex-Tigers centre Clive Woodward he became an important part of that team, notably establishing a centre partnership with Jeremy Guscott. In 2000 he moved back from Tigers to 'Quins after succumbing to poor form, not helped by the arrival of Australian Pat Howard that prevented him from getting first team rugby. His individual match winning try to defeat Brive, in the European Shield quarterfinal (27th January 2001), was voted the clubs 2000/01 'Try of the Year'. He had already picked up an RFU Cup winners’ medal with Tigers but this time tasted defeat in the final of the same competition with NEC Harlequins, at the hands of Newcastle Falcons in 2001.

He rebounded and was involved in all but one of England's games in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, scoring England's only try against South Africa, when he followed up to touch down after a Lewis Moody charge down. His try against Wales in the quarter-final in Brisbane turned the match for England in a surprisingly tight game against the men in red. He finished the tournament as joint top try scorer with five.

He was made vice captain under Lawrence Dallaglio for the 2004 Six Nations tournament. He reached the 50 cap landmark against Ireland and played in all of England's Six Nations matches. At the start of the 2004/5 season he stood on 30 tries. He was the top try scorer in the Six Nations for the past two years, using his innate ability to spot a weakness in midfield. He won the last of 55 England caps against Australia in 2004.

In 2005 Greenwood was injured for the Six Nations, but was selected for the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, his third Lions tour. He replaced Brian O'Driscoll just two minutes into the first test against New Zealand and also played in the third test.

In 2006, after 55 England English rugby union caps and 31 tries he announced his retirement in the newspaper The Daily Telegraph, and will stop playing after this current season with Harlequins. He has said that "It won't be easy, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. My life in rugby has been great."

He currently works as an analyst for Sky Sports and regularly appears on 'The Rugby Club' and live premiership matches.

[edit] External links

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