Damian Hopley

Damian Hopley
Personal information
Full name Damian Paul Hopley
Date of birth (1970-04-12) 12 April 1970
Place of birth London, England, UK
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight 14 st 9 lbs (93 kg)
School St Benedict's School, Ealing
Harrow School
University University of St Andrews, University of Cambridge
Youth clubs
YearsClub
1990-1992Wasps Academy
Senior clubs*
YearsClubApps (points)

1992-1998		University of St Andrews RFC
London Wasps
43 (95)
Representative teams

1995		England A
England
3
Sevens National teams
1993England1993 Sevens World Cup
* Professional club appearances and points
counted for domestic first grade only.

Damian Hopley (born 12 April 1970) is a former rugby union player for London Wasps and England. His position of choice was on the wing or in the centres.

Background

Born in London, Hopley attended St Benedict's School in Ealing where he represented first his school in rugby[1][2] and Harrow School. He was nicknamed the "vicar of rugby", having studied theology at the University of St Andrews and Cambridge University and holds a Master of Theology degree.[3][4]

Career

Hopley continued playing rugby for his university side. He spent his entire playing career with London Wasps before retiring at only 26 due to injuries just months after the sport turned professional.

He was a member of the successful England sevens team that won the Melrose Cup in the inaugural IRB 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens at Murrayfield. He won 3 caps for England and retired in 1998 after injuries forced him to retire at the age of 27.[5]

Other work

Hopley is the founder and chief executive of the not-for-profit registered trade union Rugby Players' Association (RPA), launched in August 1998, as the representative body and collective voice of professional rugby union players in England.[3][6]

References

  1. ↑ National Schools Sevens - Glories and Stories
  2. ↑ Old Priorians Association - Sports - International Caps
  3. 1 2 "Damian Hopley, the 'Vicar of Rugby' tackles the professional game head on". Daily Telegraph. 10 June 2009.
  4. ↑ "St Andrews University". The Herald. 8 July 1993.
  5. ↑ "Hopley continues as players' boss". BBC. 30 October 2006. Retrieved 18 February 2008.
  6. ↑ "Who we are". RPA. Retrieved 25 June 2012.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, October 15, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.