Colin Charvis

Colin Charvis

Full name	Colin Lloyd Charvis
Date of birth	December 27, 1972 (1972-12-27) (age 38)
Place of birth	Sutton Coldfield
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.90 m)
Weight	18 st 4 lbs (116 kg)
School	Queen Mary's Grammar School Polytechnic of Central London
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Flanker or No. 8
Professional / senior clubs
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1992-1995 1995-2003 2003-2004 2004-2006 2006-2009	London Welsh Swansea Tarbes Newcastle Newport GD	44 51	(30) (35)
correct as of 2007-04-13.
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1996-2007 2001	Welsh Exiles Wales Students Wales Under-21 Wales A Wales Lions	94 2	(110) (0)
correct as of 2007-11-24.

Colin Charvis (born December 27, 1972) is a former captain of the Welsh national rugby union team and also played for the British and Irish lions. A back row forward, Charvis was equally adept as a flanker or as the no. 8.

Charvis became the world record try scorer for a forward in test match rugby on 24 November 2007 v South Africa at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff with his 22nd international try. He has since been overtaken by Takashi Kikutani of Japan on the List of leading rugby union test try scorers.

Charvis has 2 caps for the British and Irish Lions; both appearances were against Australia in 2001. Further representative honours include Wales Students, Wales U21 and Wales A.

Early life

Charvis was born in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham on 27 December, 1972 to Lloyd and Lynne Charvis. Lloyd is now living in Kansas City, Missouri, USA and is a successful painter there. He began his club career with London Welsh while studying at Polytechnic of Central London.^[1] He stayed at the club until 1995, when he moved to Swansea RFC.^[2]

1995-2003: Swansea

His first cap for Wales was in 1996 against Australia: he went on to become team captain for a period and toured Australia with the British and Irish Lions in 2001.

Charvis in action against England

He remained with Swansea until changes in the Welsh club structure saw him without a contract in the period of the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

2003-2007: Tarbes, Newcastle and Newport Gwent Dragons

Charvis moved briefly to Tarbes in France and then to Newcastle Falcons in England whom he also captained.

Charvis's contract with the Falcons was not renewed at the end of the 2005-6 season. He subsequently joined the Newport Gwent Dragons. He made his debut for the club in August in a pre-season friendly against the Cornish Pirates

Wales

Charvis has scored 22 tries for his country, making him the leading try scorer among all Welsh forwards. He is also one of only three forwards to score over 100 international points (John Eales and Carlo Checchinato are the others). He was the second most capped player for Wales and the most capped forward with 94 caps until overtaken by Martyn Williams 13 March 2010. He also featured in the 1999 Rugby World Cup and captained Wales in the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

After appearances against England, Scotland, Ireland and Italy in the 2006 RBS Six Nations Charvis had a spell away from the international scene. However, his blistering form for the Dragons throughout the 2006–2007 season saw him named in Gareth Jenkins's touring squad to Australia in May 2007.

He appeared in both Tests and following the tour, Charvis was named in Gareth Jenkins' 41-man preliminary Rugby World Cup 2007 summer training squad. He made the final 30-man squad in August after playing in the Test against England and made substitute appearances in both Invesco Perpetual Summer Series matches against Argentina and France.

Charvis made a try-scoring substitute appearance in Wales's opening Pool B match against Canada, and made the starting line-ups for the remaining Pool clashes with Australia, Japan and Fiji.

In November 2007 Wales Caretaker Coach Nigel Davies included Charvis in his starting line-up for the inaugural Prince William Cup clash with South Africa. Despite the 34-12 defeat to the reigning world champions Charvis scored his 22nd try for his country in the clash, becoming the world's top forward try-scorer to date.

2008-2010: Player-coach

Charvis was appointed to a player/coach role at Newport Gwent Dragons in July 2008. However, because of injuries amongst the playing squad Charvis returned to the team, and as a result of his excellent form he played a number of matches during the 2008-09 season, but then hung up his boots in order to be full time forwards and defence coach. He parted company with the Dragons in late September 2010.^[3]

Post-professional career

After leaving his professional playing days behind Charvis toured with JML Welsh Warriors, a semi-professional rugby union team, to the annual Manila 10s tournament, winning the Cup Division in their inaugural appearance at the tournament.

Charvis is also one of eight celebrities chosen to participate in an intense week learning Welsh in an eco-friendly chic campsite in Pembrokeshire, West Wales in the series cariad@iaith:love4language shown on S4C in July 2011.

References

1. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby-union-henry-turns-charvis-into-a-main-chancer-1080543.html Charvis' career up to 1999
2. ^ Glover, Tim (1999-03-14). "Rugby Union: Henry turns Charvis into a main chancer". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby-union-henry-turns-charvis-into-a-main-chancer-1080543.html. 
3. ^ Charvis leaves Dragons

External links

• Wales profile
• Newport Gwent Dragons profile
• Newcastle Falcons profile
• Profile at Welsh Rugby Union website
• Profile at Sporting Heroes

Persondata
Name	Charvis, Colin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1972-12-27
Place of birth	Sutton Coldfield
Date of death
Place of death