Matthew Ian Gilbert (born 10 September 1985) is an English

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 currently playing at

Flanker Flanker may refer to: * Flanker (perfume), a newly created perfume sharing attributes of an existing one * Flanker (rugby union), a position in rugby union (not found in rugby league) * ''Su-27 Flanker'' (video game), a 1996 computer game modelin ...

and number eight for

Cinderford Cinderford is a town and civil parish on the eastern fringe of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. The population was 8,777 at the 2021 Census. The town came into existence in the 19th century, following the rapid expansion of the ...

. He previously played for Hartpury University,

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

. As well as

Llanelli Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby com ...

in the

Pro 14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

and

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

. He is the only

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

professional sportsman in England. Mat has worn hearing aids Since he was a child, and now wears Phonak aids. He works as a celebrity ambassador for

Phonak Sonova Holding AG (Phonak Holding AG before 1 August 2007) is an internationally active Swiss group of companies headquartered in Stäfa that specializes in hearing care (hearing aids, hearing instruments, cochlear implants, wireless communicat ...

, as well as an ambassador for the charity,

Action on Hearing Loss The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), known as Action on Hearing Loss from 2011 to 2020, is a charitable organisation working on behalf of the UK's 9 million people who are deaf or have hearing loss. History The Royal National I ...

helping to raise awareness of hearing loss.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
He has played 11 times for the England Deaf rugby team.

References

External links

Scarlets Profile
* 1985 births Living people People from Sidcup Rugby union players from the London Borough of Bexley English rugby union players Scarlets players Bath Rugby players People educated at the Duke of York's Royal Military School Rugby union flankers Mogliano Rugby players English expatriate rugby union players in Italy {{England-rugbyunion-bio-1980s-stub