Shaun Perry (born 4 May 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 ...

footballer, who last played for

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 ...

in the

Aviva 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 ...

. His usual position was at

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 ...

. Perry began playing rugby in the Youth Section o
Dudley Kingswinford RFC
at age 7. He rose through the age groups to eventually make his senior debut in the DKRFC Colts team. The next year at age 18 he was playing for the 1st XV, where he played for seven seasons before joining Coventry.

Biography

Born 4 May 1978 in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

, Perry started his career at

Dudley Kingswinford Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Football Club is an English rugby union football club based in Kingswinford in the West Midlands. The club currently participate in the fifth tier of English club rugby, Regional 1 Midlands, following their relegatio ...

in tier 4 of the English club game. He scored over 270 points for the Midlands team including 52 tries with the highlight of his stay being the 2001-02 season where he was the league's top scorer with 25 tries, helping Dudley Kingswinford to a runners up spot and almost gaining promotion (they lost the playoff match). Perry's point scoring exploits saw him be picked up by another Midlands team,

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, whom he played for in

National Division One 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 ...

for two seasons, during which time he scored a try in a match against his future club, Bristol. After eleven games for Bristol during the 2005–06 season, Perry was called up into the England A squad. He was given the captaincy for the match against Ireland A. Towards the end of the 2005–06 season, Perry sustained a wrist injury which ruled him out for approximately eight weeks of play, and therefore also put him out of contention to represent England during the summer

test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

s to Australia, for a two-test

Cook Cup Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * Ch ...

series. In August 2006, Perry was included in the 2006–07 England Elite Player Squad. In October 2006, Perry was named in the squad that would compete in the

2006 Autumn Internationals The 2006 end of year tests, also known as the 2006 Autumn Internationals, refers to several international rugby union matches that took place during November 2006 principally between touring teams from the southern hemisphere – Australia, Argenti ...

against New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina. Perry scored a try for on his debut against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

on 5 November 2006, though England were defeated 41–20. Perry made another appearance for England on 24 February against

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 ...

in the

2007 Six Nations The 2007 Six Nations Championship was the eighth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 113th series of the international championship. Fifteen ma ...

match at

Croke Park Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic At ...

. He came on as a substitute replacing

Harry Ellis Harry Alistair Ellis (born 17 May 1982) is an English former rugby union footballer who played scrum half for Leicester Tigers, England and the British & Irish Lions. In July 2010, Ellis announced his retirement from the game as a result of ...

. Perry gave away a try and a conversion after having his pass intercepted, providing an easy touch down for the Irish. However, having lost a stone in preparation for fighting for a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

place, his next game for England was a Man-of-the-Match performance against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

in a World Cup warm-up match at

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

on 4 August 2007. A poor performance against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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 ...

led to Perry being dropped from the 22 by England coach Brian Ashton. He missed 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 ...

after sustaining a fractured windpipe against

Harlequin F.C. Harlequins (officially Harlequin Football Club) is a professional rugby union club that plays in Premiership Rugby, the top level of English rugby union. Their home ground is the Twickenham Stoop, located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of ...

where he was caught with a stray boot. Perry was a welder before turning to a career in professional rugby. Perry joined French club

CA Brive Club Athlétique Brive Corrèze Limousin, also referred to as CA Brive, Brive () or CAB, is a French professional rugby union club based in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in the Corrèze, Corrèze department. Brive is a historical member of French rugby un ...

for the

2009–10 Top 14 season The 2009–10 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). It began on August 14, 2009 with a match between Toulon and Stade Français at Stade Mayol in Toulon, and continu ...

. In February 2011, it was announced that Perry has signed for

for the 2011-12 season.

Injury and retirement

In October 2012, he went down with a knee injury which required an operation and he was out for six months. In June 2013, he announced his retirement from rugby and a high contributing factor was the knee injury and operation from earlier in the year.

Honours

Dudley Kingswinford * National Division Three North runners up: 2001–02 *National Division Three North top try scorer (25 tries): 2001-02

References

External links

England profile

Dudley Kingswinford RFC

BBC: Shaun Perry to make international debut and Shaun Perry photo gallery

Bristol Rugby-Shaun Perry

Shaun Perry photo by sportingheroes.net

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Shaun 1978 births Living people Bristol Bears players CA Brive players Coventry R.F.C. players England international rugby union players English rugby union players English expatriate rugby union players in France Rugby union players from Wolverhampton Rugby union scrum-halves 2007 Rugby World Cup players