Graham Rowntree
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Graham Christopher Rowntree (born. 18 April 1971) is an English international rugby union footballer who plays loosehead prop for Leicester Tigers an England. Perhaps more remarkable is that his 45 caps came during the career of the world's most capped player, Jason Leonard.
Rowntree was born in Stockton-on-Tees. He was educated at John Cleveland College, which has produced other rugby union players, and was known as "Wiggy" because of an unfortunate haircut.
He has been with Leicester Tigers for 16 years, joining them from Nuneaton. For so much of that time he was in harness with the famous ‘ABC club’ alongside Richard Cockerill and Darren Garforth.
He made his international debut on 18 March 1995 in a match against Scotland as a temporary replacement for Jason Leonard, and subsequently played in the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup. He also made the 1997 Lions tour of South Africa and the 99 World Cup.
He was prominent throughout the pre World Cup years, starting in all of England's Six Nations games in 2002 and in England's 15-13 win over New Zealand in Wellington in 2003. Despite playing in the 2003 pre-World Cup trial match in France, Rowntree was omitted from Clive Woodward's squad which won the tournament. Clive Woodward admitted that to leave Rowntree behind was one of the hardest decisions he had to make in all his years as England head coach.
However, he returned to the England side in 2004 Six Nations and became first choice loosehead prop for the 2004 Autumn internationals.
External links
- Rowntree @ Planet Rugby Player stats from Planet Rugby (http://www.planet-rugby.com/stats/players/players_listing.phtml/p_r/ENG?setCode=archive&search_text=Rowntree&tournament_code=international&country=&scdate=1871&ecdate=2004&position=&sbdate=1871&ebdate=2004&go=Submit)
- Sporting heroes (http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1316)