William Welch (born 3 April 1990) is an English retired

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 and former captain for

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 ...

in the

Gallagher 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 position of choice is at

Openside Flanker Flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Each team of 15 players includes two flankers, who play in the forwards, and are generally classified as either blindside or openside flankers, numbers 6 and 7 respectively. The name comes from ...

. He is a product of the Newcastle Falcons Junior Academy and signed for the First XV in 2009 after representing

Blaydon RFC Blaydon Rugby Club is an English semi-professional rugby union team. The first team currently play in the fifth tier of the English rugby union system Regional 1 North East following their relegation from National League 2 North at the end of ...

at a National Two Level. In July 2008, Welch represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

under 18's National Rugby Union team in Argentina. He also represented England at under 19's level and was selected as part of the 32 man England under 20 elite player squad, taking part in the RBS U20 Six Nations IRB Junior World Championship.

References

1990 births Living people Blaydon RFC players English rugby union players Newcastle Falcons players Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Newcastle upon Tyne {{England-rugbyunion-bio-1990s-stub