Ben Toolis (born 31 March 1992) is a former Scottish

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 most recently played for

Kintetsu Liners Hanazono Kintetsu Liners are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kintetsu Corporation which was founded in 1929. They have won the All-Japan Championship three times as an amateur team. Their home is at Hanazono Rugby Stadium, which was also ...

in the

Japan Rugby League One Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, b ...

. Toolis represented

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

at an international level.

Early life

Born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia, he played for Australia Youth (U18) and Junior (U20) in volleyball games and had a background of rugby. Ben was in the Australian National Rugby Academy squad and played in the IRB Pacific Nations Cup with his twin brother

Alex Alex is a given name. Similar names are Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey or Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Cook (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Forsyth (disambiguation), multiple people * Al ...

. Subsequently, he was able to make it to the Premier Grade semi-finals in 2012 and 2013, a privilege he shared with Alex.

Professional rugby career

In 2013 Ben and Alex signed for

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

, joining the club's Elite Development Player Programme. Coach Stevie Scott stated: "They're both very athletic and mobile, which are important attributes in the modern game." Ben's first try for Edinburgh came during the

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception ...

semi-final thrashing of Newport Gwent Dragons in April 2015.

International career

Although born in Australia, Toolis is eligible to represent Scotland as his mother, Linda, is from Carluke in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

. After a good run of form for his club Toolis was called up to the

squad for the

2015 Six Nations Championship The 2015 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2015 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 16th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual rugby union tournament. It was contested by E ...

, going on to make his international debut against Italy. He has subsequently played in two victories for Scotland over the country of his birth.

References

External links

profile
at Edinburgh Rugby
profile
at Scottish Rugby {{DEFAULTSORT:Toolis, Ben Edinburgh Rugby players 1992 births Living people Rugby union players from Brisbane Australian people of Scottish descent Scotland international rugby union players London Irish players Rugby union locks Scottish rugby union players Hanazono Kintetsu Liners players 2019 Rugby World Cup players People educated at Marist College Ashgrove GPS Rugby players Scottish expatriate rugby union players in Japan