Peter Charles Richards (born 10 March 1978) is a former 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 ...

player. A versatile player, he has played in three positions:

scrum half Scrum may refer to: * Autozam Scrum, a microvan and pickup truck sold in Japan by Mazda * Line of scrimmage, line separating football teams before a play * Media scrum, an impromptu press conference, often held immediately outside an event such a ...

(his preferred role),

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

and

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 ...

. Richards retired in the summer of 2010 because of a back injury. As of May 2015, Richards became head coach at London Scottish.

Early life

Born 10 March 1978 in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, Richards began playing

mini rugby Mini rugby, also known as New Image Rugby, is a form of rugby union designed to introduce the sport to children. It uses a smaller ball and pitch than standard rugby, and has eight to ten players a side. Invented in England in 1970, mini rugby was ...

at Farnham Rugby Club, before he went to the

Royal Hospital School The Royal Hospital School (also known as "RHS" and historically nicknamed "The Cradle of the Navy") is a British co-educational fee-charging international boarding and day school with naval traditions. The school admits pupils aged 11 to 18 ...

, near Ipswich.

Early career

Richards moved to

Lord Wandsworth College Lord Wandsworth College (LWC) is a co-educational private school in Long Sutton, Hampshire, England, for day and boarding pupils between the ages of 11–18, which occupies a 1,200 acre campus and is known for its charitable foundation. It is a ...

, Hampshire for sixth form and played alongside

Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and French side Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scori ...

reaching the Daily Mail Semi-final in 1996. He featured in both the England U16 and U18 Group Schools teams before joining

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 ...

in 1996.

Club career

Richards quickly made his first team debut for London Irish against

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

before joining Harlequins for the 1999–2000 season. He left two years later and spent a year in Italy playing for Benetton Treviso, then returned to join

Bristol Shoguns Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

. He moved again, to

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

at the start of the 2003–04 season, when the Shoguns were relegated from the

Zurich Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby u ...

. He was a replacement when Wasps won both the 2003–04 Premiership Final and the 2004 Heineken Cup Final. In summer 2005, Richards moved to

Gloucester Rugby Gloucester Rugby are a professional rugby union club based in the West Country city of Gloucester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was formed in 1873 and since 1891 has played its home matches ...

to replace

Andy Gomarsall Andrew Charles Thomas Gomarsall MBE (born 24 July 1974, in Durham) is an English former rugby union player who played at scrum-half for Leeds Carnegie and England. He previously played for Gloucester Rugby, Bedford and Wasps. Until May 2006 ...

. He re-signed with

at the start of the 2007–08 season.

International career

Richards has represented England at U19, U21 and A level. He was part of the England "Tour of Hell" in 1998 to Australia and New Zealand when he played against the New Zealand Māori. He angered head coach

Clive Woodward Sir Clive Ronald Woodward (born 6 January 1956) is an English former rugby union player and coach (sport), coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He also coached the 2005 Britis ...

by going to nightclubs in Sydney and Auckland, which had a detrimental result on his performance during training sessions. He came home before the final leg to South Africa, and Woodward never called him up to the squad again while he was coach. In 2004 he was part of the winning England team at the

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens ( zh, t=香港國際七人欖球賽, link=no) is a rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competiti ...

. This decision paid off when he was named in

Andy Robinson Richard Andrew Robinson Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 3 April 1964) is an English rugby union coach and retired player. He was the director of rugby at Bristol Bears, Bristol until November 2016. He is the former head coach of Scotland ...

's 2005 Autumn test squad, though he did not feature in any of the games. Richards was included in England's 2006 Tour of Australia and won his first Test

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

against the

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 ...

in a game which Australia beat England 34–3. Richards won his second cap in the second game of the tour in which the Wallabies triumphed again in a 43–18 victory. He took part in the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup () was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by F ...

in France, coming on as a replacement in the Final, and other games. He was picked for the

2008 Six Nations Championship The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, the 114th series of the international championship. Fifteen ...

but was then ruled out of the whole tournament after tearing a

biceps The biceps or biceps brachii (, "two-headed muscle of the arm") is a large muscle that lies on the front of the upper arm between the shoulder and the elbow. Both heads of the muscle arise on the scapula and join to form a single muscle bel ...

muscle while playing for

against Benetton Treviso. On 19 May 2010, Richards announced his retirement from rugby due to injury, saying "I've had a great career and thoroughly enjoyed my rugby wherever I've played. I would like to have continued on for another couple of seasons, unfortunately that is not going to be physically possible. I would like to thank all the players, coaches and management and supporters at all the clubs I've played with for their help, friendship and encouragement."

References

External links

London Irish profileEngland profileGloucester profileWasps profile
*
Peter Richards photo by sportingheroes.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Peter 1978 births Living people Bristol Bears players England international rugby union players English rugby union players Gloucester Rugby players Harlequin F.C. players London Irish players People educated at Lord Wandsworth College People educated at the Royal Hospital School Rugby union players from Portsmouth Rugby union scrum-halves Wasps RFC players 2007 Rugby World Cup players