Paul Griffen

Paul Griffen
Personal information
Full name Paul Richard Griffen
Date of birth 30 March 1975
Place of birth Dunedin, New Zealand
Height 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 85 kg (13 st 5 lb)
Club information
Position(s) Scrum-half
Current club Rugby Calvisano
Senior clubs*
YearsClubApps (points)
1993–1994
1995–1999
1999–2000
2000-present		New Zealand Blaketown
New Zealand Linwood
Partenope
Calvisano
Representative teams
1993-94
1997
2000–2009		West Coast
Canterbury
Italy Italy		? (?)
1 (0)
42 (13)
* Professional club appearances and points
counted for domestic first grade only.

Paul Richard Griffen (born 30 March 1975 in Dunedin) is a New Zealand-born rugby union player who represented Italy at scrum half in 42 full internationals. He has been playing for Calvisano since 2000.[1]

Club career

Paul Griffen was raised in New Zealand and played his early rugby at Blaketown RFC and at Linwood RFC later representing the West Coast in 1993[2]and Canterbury in 1997 in the National Provincial Championship. In 1999 he left New Zealand and joined Partenope of Naples, a second tier Italian side where he played for one season. Griffen transferred to Calvisano for the start of the 2000-01 season appearing in the Super 10. He was an integral member of the team that won the Super 10 in 2004-05 & 2007-08 and the Coppa Italia in 2003-04. He has now spent over ten seasons at Calvisano

International career

In 2004 he was selected by coach John Kirwan to represent Italy against England in the 2004 Six Nations Championship.[3]Griffen had a successful tournament and was voted Italy’s best player alongside Andrea Lo Cicero. He was replaced as first choice scrum-half by Alessandro Troncon for the 2005 Six Nations Championship appearing as a replacement on two occasions. He remained a regular member of the Italy squad until 2007. The highlight of Griffen's career was his selection by Italy coach Pierre Berbizier for the 2007 Rugby World Cup where he appeared in three games. Griffen was omitted from the national team for the 2008 Six Nations Championship but was recalled after a sixteen month absence by the new Italy coach Nick Mallett for the 2009 Six Nations Championship where he made four appearances.

References

  1. ↑ "Recalled rugby star Griffen holds no grudges". Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  2. ↑ http://westcoastrfu.com/yearbyyear1993.htm
  3. ↑ "Kirwan selects Griffen for debut". 13 February 2004. Retrieved 2009-02-15.

External links