Robert Russell (born 1 May 1976) is an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n-born professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who played hooker for

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

and formerly with

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

. He won 27 caps for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

from 1999 to 2005.

Early life

Russell was brought up on an Australian cattle farm. He was educated at the

Anglican Church Grammar School The Anglican Church Grammar School (ACGS), formerly the Church of England Grammar School and commonly referred to as Churchie, is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for boys, located in East Brisbane, an inner suburb of Brisbane, ...

. He played domestic rugby for Queensland before moving to Scotland.

Rugby career

He played for

Edinburgh Reivers 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 ...

until 1999, then joined English

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

team

Saracens F.C. Saracens Rugby Club () are an English professional rugby union club based in North London, England. As of the current 2022–23 season, they compete in Premiership Rugby, the highest tier competition in English rugby, as well as the domestic P ...

until 2004. He then played for London Irish and played 60 games, scoring seven tries. He made his debut for

Scotland national rugby union team The Scotland national rugby union team represents Scotland in men's international rugby union and is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship and participates in the Rugby World Cup, ...

against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

in Glasgow on 28 August 1999. He represented Scotland at the World Cup in 2003, but started only one fixture in Australia. He scored Scotland's solitary try during its quarter-final defeat to Australia. He scored two tries after coming off the bench in a 100–8 victory over Japan at McDiarmid Park in Perth in November 2004. In 2007, he retired from playing rugby, due to a persistent neck injury.

Post-playing retirement

In 2012 he started an online freight marketplace called Truckit.net in Australia.

References

1976 births Living people Scottish rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players Aberdeen GSFP RFC players London Irish players Saracens F.C. players People educated at Anglican Church Grammar School 1999 Rugby World Cup players 2003 Rugby World Cup players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub