Richard Hardwick (born 31 May 1994) is a

Namibian This is a demography of the population of Namibia including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Population Census results As r ...

professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who plays for the

Ealing Trailfinders Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club is an English professional rugby union club based in West London. The club's first team are the reigning RFU Championship champions of 2024–25 but were considered ineligible for promotion to Premiership Rugby a ...

in the

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men's English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when Eng ...

and

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

as a loose forward. He previously played for the and the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels were an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria that competed in the Super Rugby competition. The Rebels made their debut in SANZAAR, SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. T ...

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

, while he played for and

Melbourne Rising The Melbourne Rising was an Australian rugby union team based in Melbourne that competed in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team represented the rugby community in Victoria, Australia, Victoria and was organised and managed by Rugby V ...

in the

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

Early life

Hardwick was born in Namibia, but raised in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. He attended

Churchlands Senior High School Churchlands Senior High School is an Independent Public Schools, independent public Education in Australia#Secondary schools, secondary school located in Churchlands, Western Australia, Churchlands, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, approxi ...

in Perth and was selected for the Australia 'A' Schoolboys team in 2011. Hardwick earned his stripes playing for

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

in the local Premier Grade (1st Grade) competition. He previously played in the Juniors for UWA. In addition he spent two years with the Future Force squad preparing to become a

player.

Rugby career

Named as a member of the Force's wider training group ahead of the

2016 Super Rugby season The 2016 Super Rugby season was the 21st season of Super Rugby and the first season featuring an expanded 18-team format. It was also the first season that teams outside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa featured, with the Jaguares from Ar ...

, Hardwick didn't have to wait long for his debut, arriving as it did in a match away to the at the end of March. He made two starts and two substitute appearances during the season. Hardwick won the Phil Waugh Medal in the grand final of the 2016 National Rugby Championship for his man of the match performance on the way to

Perth Spirit The Perth Spirit is a former rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, that played in the National Rugby Championship (NRC) from 2014 to 2017, winning the competition in 2016. The team was formed in 2007 to compete in the Australian Ru ...

's first NRC title win. In late 2017 Hardwick signed with the , along with fellow

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

teammates,

Bill Meakes Bill Meakes (born 23 February 1991) is an Australian professional rugby union player currently playing for RFCLA Rugby FC Los Angeles (RFCLA) is an American professional rugby union team based in Los Angeles, California, that competes in Maj ...

and

Matt Philip Matt Philip (born 7 March 1994) is an Australian rugby union footballer who currently plays as a lock for the . He previously played for the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby, and signed with the New South Wales Waratahs ahead ...

. Hardwick signed a two-year deal which will take him through the 2019 World Cup.

Super Rugby statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardwick, Richard 1994 births Living people Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Rugby union flankers Western Force players Perth Spirit players Namibian emigrants to Australia Melbourne Rebels players Melbourne Rising players Rugby union players from Windhoek Namibian rugby union players Namibia international rugby union players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club players Australian expatriate rugby union players in England Namibian expatriate rugby union players in England 21st-century Namibian sportsmen 21st-century Australian sportsmen