Nathan Sharpe

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Nathan Sharpe (born 26 February 1976 in Wagga Wagga) is an Australian rugby union player. He plays lock and is the captain of the Western Force.

Sharpe was raised in the Riverina city of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales and his first sporting love was Australian rules football. He started playing rugby union upon moving to the Gold Coast, Queensland. At schoolboy level, he representated The Southport School first XV in 1995 as well as the schools 1st VIII Rowing Team. ^[1] During 1996, Sharpe played for the under-19 Australian rugby union team. The following year he went on to play for the under-21s national side.

In 2002 he was voted as the Australian Rugby Medal for Excellence which, the award which is voted for by players from all the Australian Super 12 teams (then, Queensland Reds, New South Wales Waratahs and the ACT Brumbies). That same year, Sharpe made his debut for the Wallabies against France.

In 2003, he was voted Super 12 Player of the Year by The Australian newspaper. He went on to play in all seven games of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, which included the loss against England in the final.

He captained the Australian team in the Bledisloe Cup match against the All Blacks in Wellington in July 2004 in the absence of George Gregan.

In 2005, he was named on the bench of the Wallaby Team of the Decade. That year, he also made a high profile move to the Western Force, the new Super 14 franchise that would be competing in the new 2006 Super 14 season. He finished his career at the Queensland Reds with 71 games. Sharpe became the inaugural captain of the Force.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Western Force profile
• Wallabies profile
• Nathan Sharpe on RugbyWA.com
• Nathan Sharpe on RUPA.com.au