Will Greenwood
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William John Heaton Greenwood MBE (born October 20 1972 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is an English rugby union player. He was educated at Sedburgh school.
He plays his club rugby for the Harlequins, having also played for Preston Grasshoppers, Waterloo and Leicester Tigers. He graduated with a BA in Economics from Hatfield College, Durham in 1994.
His father Dick Greenwood played at flanker for and later coached the England Rugby Union team. He left Harlequins and moved to Leicester Tigers in 1996 because the presence of England centre Will Carling meant he could not get first team rugby.
Despite some impressive performances for Leicester in 1997, he was overlooked by the England coach Jack Rowell, but was selected for the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa still uncapped, and ahead of then England captain Phil de Glanville. During the tour, in a accident he stopped breathing for several minutes after hitting his head on the hard ground, and did not play in any of the tests. He also toured with the Lions in 2001.
Subsequently picked by new England coach and ex-Tigers centre Clive Woodward he became an important part of that team, notably establishing a centre partnership with Jeremy Guscott. He moved back from Tigers to 'Quins after succumbing to poor form, not helped by the arrival of Australian Pat Howard that prevented him from getting first team rugby. He picked up an RFU Cup winners’ medal with Tigers but tasted defeat in the final of the same competition with NEC Harlequins, at the hands of Newcastle Falcons in 2001. He rebounded and was involved in all but one of England’s games in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, scoring England’s only try against South Africa, when he followed up to touch down after a Lewis Moody charge down. His try against Wales in the quarter-final in Brisbane turned the match for England in a surprisingly tight game against the men in red.
He was made vice captain under Lawrence Dallaglio for the 2004 six nations championship. He reached the 50 cap landmark against Ireland and played in all of England’s Six Nations matches. He is England’s leading try scorer, at the start of the 2004/5 season he stood on 30 tries. He has also been the top try scorer in the 6 Nations Championship for the past two years, using his innate ability to spot a weakness in midfield.
In 2005 Greenwood was injured for the Six Nations, but was selected for the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, his third Lions tour.
External links
- Sporting heroes (http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1273)
- Planet-rugby bio (http://www.planet-rugby.com/stats/players/player_details.phtml/p_r/ENG?playerCode=EGR20&search_text=Will%20Greenwood&navCode=&tm1Code=%&setCode=archive)