Geoff Appleford (born 26 September 1977 in

Dundee, South Africa The coal mining town of Dundee is situated in a valley of the Biggarsberg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (). It is part of the Endumeni Municipality, Umzinyathi District. It is very rich in coal deposits. More populous than the town o ...

) is a retired

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 ...

footballer who played for

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, then ended his career with

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The club plays in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby union. It was formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. ...

, although because of injury he never played a competitive game for the club. Geoff also played for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He was educated at

Maritzburg College Maritzburg College is a State school, semi-private English language, English-medium high school for boys situated in the city of Pietermaritzburg in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest boys' high school i ...

. A former Natal Shark and Mpumalanga Puma, Appleford joined

in 2000. He made his

England Sevens The England national rugby sevens team competes in the Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games. They have once won the Rugby World Cup Sevens — the inaugural tournament in 1993. Historically the team also competed in the World Rugby ...

debut in 2001 and won his full

cap in 2002; qualifying through his grandparents. He was a member of

’s

Powergen Cup The RFU Knockout Cup was an English rugby union competition open to any member of the Rugby Football Union. First contested in 1971, it was the premier competition in English club rugby before the establishment of the English league structure in 1 ...

winning team of 2002, starting in the final and scoring two tries. In the summer of 2005 Appleford joined

. In January 2007 Appleford was forced to take early retirement after failing to recover fully from a shoulder injury. Also, Appleford is possibly the only player to be signed whilst injured and retire having not played a game for them.

References

External links

Appleford's injury forces early retirement

Northampton profile

Guinness Premiership profile
England international rugby union players English rugby union players Rugby union centres Northampton Saints players London Irish players 1977 births Living people Alumni of Maritzburg College Rugby union players from KwaZulu-Natal Sharks (rugby union) players {{England-rugbyunion-bio-1970s-stub