Alan Charron (born 27 July 1966 in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

) is a former

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

rugby player. He played 2nd row and all three loose forward positions at club and international level back-row forward and was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

76 times for the Canadian national team, the

Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and play their home games at Rogers Arena. Bruce B ...

. In fact he also played briefly in a game at prop when his team was shorthanded after injuries and send-offs suffered by his teammates. He played club rugby for the Ottawa Irish (amateur), professionally in England at Moseley Rugby Football club and Bristol as well as in France at Pau and

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. Represented the Eastern Ontario union for many years winning the National interbranch championship in 1992 and winning the National provincial championships twice with Ontario in 1995 and 1996. Charron was a favourite with the supporters of many of the European clubs he played for. While playing with Moseley and Bristol he was voted the supporters' Player of the Season for 1996/97 1998/99 respectively and was awarded the

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Rugby Player of the Year award in 1999. Voted on two occasions as Canada's outstanding player for the year. Charron was a vital member of the highly regarded Canadian forward pack that did so well at the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

, defeating Fiji and Romania and giving both France and New Zealand a hard time. He was one of three Ontario players on the field against New Zealand, the others all coming from British Columbia. He scored a famous try to defeat

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

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in autumn 1993. That day he was playing out of his usual flank position, packing down in the second row for an injured

Norm Hadley Norman Hadley (2 December 1964 – 26 March 2016) was a Canadian rugby union player. "Stormin' Norman" was a massive , lock. He played professionally first for London Wasps and then Bedford Blues in the 1990s. In Canada he played for James Bay a ...

. Managed to crack several international newspapers and magazines 1st team or honourable first XV selection following all four Rugby World Cups he participated in. Noted for recovering from a severe

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injury to participate in the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

as the captain of Canada, his fourth

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

tournament. Had a full reconstruction of his right knee (torn ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus in May came back to play four and a half months later. At the time he became only the second international rugby union player of any country to do so, the other being former teammate and previous Canadian captain Gareth Rees. National team record for caps (76), tied for most games captained (25). Appeared in a world 15 side with his Canadian teammate Rod Snow to celebrate Argentina's centenary. Has appeared a record 5 times for a Canadian wearing the British Barbarian jersey, scoring one try and in fact captained the side for a half on one occasion. Nine international tries (Wales, New Zealand, Romania, Australia, USA, South Africa, Tonga, Japan, Namibia). Charron retired from international rugby union on Canada's defeat of

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in the 2003 Rugby World Cup pool match. Went to a fifth RWC as part of the Canadian national management team in 2007 Inducted into the Eastern Ontario wall of Fame, Ontario Rugby Hall of Fame, Ottawa Sports hall of Fame, Ontario Sport Hall of Fame and was recognised as being one of the top 100 athletes to come from Ottawa. Charron became Canada's third inductee into the

World Rugby Hall of Fame The World Rugby Hall of Fame (formerly the IRB Hall of Fame) recognises special achievement and contribution to the sport of rugby union. The World Rugby Hall of Fame covers players, coaches, administrators, match officials, institutions and other ...

in 2017, following Gareth Rees (inducted in 2011) and

Heather Moyse Heather Moyse (born July 23, 1978) is a Canadian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, representing Canada in international competition as a bobsledder, rugby union player, and track cyclist and competing at the Canadian intercollegiate le ...

(2016) in being so honoured. Charron finished his international career with 76 games player, 44 total points, and 9 tries scored.WORLD RUGBY HALL OF FAME – INDUCTEE NO.134 – AL CHARRON. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.world.rugby/halloffame/inductees/7269

References

2 Game video, 1991 Rugby World Cup Quarter Final, Canada v New Zealand, First Half, Team List on screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1XJaPIJ2dk {{DEFAULTSORT:Charron, Al 1966 births Living people Bristol Bears players Canadian rugby union players Franco-Ontarian people Moseley Rugby Football Club players Sportspeople from Ottawa Rugby football people from Ontario Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Canada international rugby union players Hillcrest High School (Ottawa) alumni Canadian expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in England Expatriate rugby union players in France Canadian expatriate sportspeople in France Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England World Rugby Hall of Fame inductees