Robert Patrick Herring (born 27 April 1990) is a professional

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 plays as a hooker for

United Rugby Championship 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 ...

club

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

. Born in South Africa, he represents

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

at international level after qualifying on ancestry grounds.

Club career

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Herring hails from one of South Africa's oldest and well known schools,

South African College Schools The South African College Schools (colloquially often known as “SACS”) is a public English medium primary and high education institution situated in Newlands – part of the Southern Suburbs region of Cape Town in the Western Cape provinc ...

(SACS). He joined

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 ...

academy in 2009, and made his senior debut for the team in 2010,"Ulster sign Niall O'Connor and Rob Herring for 2012-13 season"
BBC Sport, 18 June 2012 but was not offered a senior contract, and returned to South Africa to continue his studies. He played for

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

's under-21 team, and appeared in the

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each unive ...

for

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...

.Sarah Mockford
"Ireland hooker Rob Herring on his rugby journey"
Rugby World, 18 November 2020 On the basis of these performances, both Ulster and

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

showed interest,Jonathan Bradley
"Rob Herring opens up on ‘difficult’ days as Rory Best’s back-up but says 200th Ulster cap is proof he made right choice"
''Belfast Telegraph'', 12 October 2021 aware he qualified to play for

through his Irish grandparents. Both teams offered him a two-year development contract, but Herring asked for a six-month trial so he could continue his studies if it didn't work out, and Ulster agreed. He signed for Ulster ahead of the 2012–13 season. Initially used as a backup to team captain

Rory Best Rory David Best (born 15 August 1982) is an Irish former rugby union player who was the captain of the Ireland national team from 2016 to 2019. He played hooker for Ulster and was registered for Banbridge RFC. Best earned 124 caps for Irelan ...

, he got first-team opportunities when Best was on Ireland duty. He was named captain in Best's absence during the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

,"Rob Herring named as Ulster Captain during World Cup"
Ulster Rugby, 1 September 2015 and shared the captaincy with Andrew Trimble during the 2016–17 season after Best stepped down from the role. He made his 100th appearance for the province in September 2016. Since Best's retirement in 2019, Herring has been Ulster's first choice hooker. He made his 200th appearance for Ulster in October 2021. He equalled the Ulster appearance record at 229, alongside Andrew Trimble and

Darren Cave Darren Cave (born 5 April 1987) is a retired professional Irish rugby union player who played centre for Ulster, sharing the province's appearance record with Andrew Trimble and Rob Herring with 229, and won eleven caps for Ireland. Early care ...

, at the end of the 2022–23 season, and became the province's most capped player when he came off the bench against

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

the following season.

International career

In January 2014, Herring was included in the provisional 44 man Ireland squad for the

2014 Six Nations Championship The 2014 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2014 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 15th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship ...

. He made his debut for Ireland in June 2014 coming off the bench in a tour match against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. On 16 October 2019, Herring was called into the Ireland squad for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

to replace the injured

Seán Cronin Seán Cronin (29 August 1922 – 9 March 2011) was a journalist and former Irish Army officer and twice Irish Republican Army chief of staff.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, ''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Pa ...

. He started all five of Ireland's matches in the

2020 Six Nations Championship The 2020 Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) was the 21st Six Nations Championship, the annual rugby union competition contested by the national teams of England national rugby union team, England ...

. He scored a try in the third test against the All Blacks in July 2022, helping Ireland secure a historic series win in New Zealand. He was named in Ireland's

2023 Six Nations Championship The men's 2023 Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) was the 24th Six Nations Championship, an annual rugby union competition contested by the men's national teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy ...

squad and went on to score a try in the final match vs. England, as Ireland won the Grand Slam and Triple crown. Herring represented Ireland at the

2023 Rugby World Cup The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

, where he scored two tries in the pool stage against Romania and Tonga. He was called up to the Ireland squad for their two-match tour of South Africa in July 2024.

Honours

; Ireland * 1x

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

* 1× Grand Slam:

* 2× Triple Crown:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

References

External links

*
Ulster Rugby profileUnited Rugby Championship profile
*
Ireland profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herring, Rob Living people 1990 births Ulster Rugby players South African people of Irish descent Ireland international rugby union players Ireland Wolfhounds international rugby union players London Irish players Western Province (rugby union) players South African rugby union players Irish rugby union players London Welsh RFC players Rugby union hookers Rugby union players from Cape Town 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Alumni of South African College Schools