Phil Godman (born 20 May 1982) is an ex

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 played 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 ...

and

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

as well as representing Scottish rugby union side.

Early life

He was educated at

Merchiston Castle School Merchiston Castle School is an independent boarding school for boys in the suburb of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has around 470 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 7 and 18 as either boarding or day pupils; it was modelled ...

, where he played for the

side in three consecutive Scottish Schools Cup finals, winning the

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

in 1999 and 2000, when he captained the side.

Club career

After leaving

, he signed a professional contract with English Premiership team

in the summer of 2002. However, after two years as understudy to

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 ...

at the

, he moved to

Pro 12 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 ...

(then Celtic League) team

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

(then Edinburgh Gunners) in the summer of 2004. Godman established himself as first choice

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 remained so until tearing his

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

in training with

in September 2010. After missing the remainder of 2010 and the majority of 2011, as a result of the injury, Godman found opportunities restricted as new coach Michael Bradley looked to make wholesale changes to the

squad. In May 2012, he left

for

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 ...

team

London Scottish F.C. London Scottish Football Club is a rugby union club in England. The club is a member of both the Rugby Football Union and the Scottish Rugby Union. The club is currently playing in the RFU Championship and share the Athletic Ground, Richmond, A ...

In April 2013, Godman agreed to rejoin

for the 2013/14 season.Black, Gareth
"Newcastle Falcons swoop to sign Scottish trio"
''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'', 23 April 2013. Retrieved on 25 May 2013. However he was released from

prior to the 2015/16 season and is now coaching at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

International career

He represented the Scottish rugby union side at schoolboy, under 18, under 19 and under 21 levels before being selected for his first

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 ...

Frank Hadden Frank Hadden (born 14 June 1954) is a Scottish rugby union coach. He is a former head coach of Scotland and Edinburgh Rugby. Hadden replaced Matt Williams and was appointed on 15 September 2005. Hadden coached the Merchiston Castle School 1st ...

against

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in June 2005. In 2009, Godman was named

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

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 ...

recorded their first win over

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

for 27 years. He remained a mainstay in the Scottish squad under coach

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 ...

until tearing his

in training with his club

in September 2010. After recovering from the injury, Godman returned to the Scottish squad in January 2012.''BBC''
"Edinburgh fly-half Phil Godman returns to Scotland squad"
19 January 2012. Retrieved on 25 May 2013. However, he never played for Scotland again.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godman, Phil 1982 births Living people Scottish rugby union players Newcastle Falcons players People educated at Merchiston Castle School Edinburgh Rugby players Scotland international rugby union players London Scottish F.C. players Rugby union players from Edinburgh Rugby union centres