Ben Flower

For the baseball player, see Ben Flowers.
Ben Flower
Personal information
Born 19 October 1987
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight 17 st 0 lb (108 kg) [1]
Playing information
Position Prop, Second-row, Loose forward
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2008–11 Crusaders 53 3 0 0 12
2010 South Wales Scorpions (loan) 4 1 0 0 4
2012– Wigan 69 10 0 0 40
Total 126 14 0 0 56
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2008–13 Wales 16 1 0 0 4
As of 6 November 2014
Source: RLP

Ben Flower (born 19 October 1987) is a Welsh international rugby league player for Wigan and the Wales national rugby league team. He previously played for Crusaders. He started his career at loose forward/second row before moving mainly to prop when he joined Wigan.

Career

An under-17 international when at Cardiff Demons, Flower also played for Wales in rugby union at under 18, under 19 and under 20 level. Signed by the Crusaders from Welsh Premiership rugby union side, Bedwas RFC, he has also turned out regional side Newport Gwent Dragons.

Flower progressed as a rugby league player throughout 2007 starting in Crusaders Colts before becoming a regular in the first team and winning his first full Welsh cap in 2008. He made his Wales debut against England while at Celtic Crusaders in 2008.[2]

He represented Wales in the 2010 European Cup and the 2011 Rugby League Four Nations, and was named in the squad for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.[3]

On 11 October 2014 Flower became the first player to be sent off in a Super League Grand Final after being shown a red card for twice punching Lance Hohaia of St. Helens, once while Hohaia was on the ground.[4][5] He was given a six-month ban by the RFL disciplinary committee.[6] The attack led to Hohaia's retirement in the April 2015 after being unable to recover from concussion related problems.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Crusaders Rugby League". web page. Crusaders Rugby League Club. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
  2. ↑ "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  3. ↑ "Crusaders dominate Wales' squad". BBC. 3 October 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  4. ↑ "Super League Grand Final: St Helens v Wigan Warriors as it happened - BBC Sport". BBC Sport.
  5. ↑ Andy Wilson. "Wigan’s Ben Flower hammered for Super League Grand Final punches". the Guardian.
  6. ↑ "Ben Flower: Wigan prop banned for Lance Hohaia punch". BBC Sport. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Lance Hohaia retires due to health concerns". SkySports.com. Sky Sports. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2014.

External links