Andrew Bruce Farley played professional rugby union, he represented the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competition ...

Otago Rugby Football Union The Otago Rugby Football Union is the official governing body of rugby union for the Otago region of New Zealand. The union is based in the city of Dunedin, and its home ground is Forsyth Barr Stadium. The top representative team competes in t ...

L'Aquila Rugby L'Aquila Rugby 1936 was an Italian rugby union club based in L'Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo. The official colours of the club were black and green, the colours of the city of L'Aquila. The club went into liquidation and disbanded in 2018. Hi ...

Swansea RFC Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Welsh Premiership. The club play at St Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea and are also known as ''The Whites,'' in reference to their home kit colours. History ...

Connacht Rugby Connacht Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Connachta) is one of the four professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. Connacht competes in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Con ...

and

FC Grenoble The Football Club de Grenoble Rugby (FCG) is a French rugby union club based in Grenoble and founded in 1892. FCG was champion of France in 1954 and runner-up in 1918 and in 1993 during a controversial final, being deprived of the title of cham ...

where after retiring, became GM of Rugby Operations. He was born in Brisbane, Australia on 21 August 1980, to English born father Terence and New Zealand born mother Christine. He started playing rugby at 10 years of age at

Marist College Ashgrove , motto_translation = Act Courageously , location = Ashgrove, Brisbane, Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Queensland , pushpin_ima ...

. His rugby career commenced when he was selected in the Queensland and Australian Schoolboys. The following year, 1998, he gained selection in the inaugural Reds Rugby College (Junior Queensland Reds). This led him to be selected in Queensland and Australian under 19. Highlights included the Australia under 19 team who played the curtain raiser the 1999

Bledisloe Cup The Bledisloe Cup is an annual rugby union competition originally staged between the national teams of Australia's Wallabies and New Zealand's All Blacks that has been contested since the 1930s. The frequency that the competition is held has va ...

at Stadium Australia which had a record crowd of over 100,000.

Early career

The following season he travelled to Italy to play for L'Aquila Rugby coached by former All Black Michael Brewer. After being there for a half season he returned to Australia to once again play for Queensland under 21, and after playing a successful National Championship he was selected in the Australian under 21 World Cup team who finished runner up to the Junior All Blacks in Sydney. He then travelled to Otago where he was a member of the 2001 NPC development squad where he was coached by

Laurie Mains Laurence William Mains (born 16 February 1946) is a former rugby union footballer and coach who represented New Zealand. Mains' representative career started when he first played for Otago in 1967. He made his All Blacks début in 1971, agains ...

. After the NPC with Otago he returned to Australia to join the

receiving 2 caps that season. Following his two caps, former Reds, Bath, Stade Francais and Australian

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

coach John Connelly contacted him with a suggestion of returning to the northern hemisphere, this time to play for Swansea RFC. After the season with the

he played his first game for Swansea RFC against Munster in the 5th round of the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...

. Swansea starting XV was his home for the 2002–03 season. After the merging of Welsh clubs at the end of 2002–03 season he was presented with an opportunity to join the Irish province Connacht

Connacht Rugby

During his time at

, he captained the side for 3 seasons and played over 100

games. He also made over 50 appearances in the

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

and

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

collectively. The highlight of his time with Connacht was captaining his side against the Springboks in a 2007 world cup warm up game where the Connacht team showed a lot a pride and resilience in an 18 – 3 loss to the eventual world cup winners. While playing in Ireland for

, he gained Irish residency and was selected to play for Ireland A in the 2007 Barclays Churchill Cup which was hosted at Exeter Chiefs'

Sandy Park Sandy Park is a rugby union stadium and conference and banqueting centre in Exeter, England. It is the home ground of Exeter Chiefs, who from the 2010–11 season have been playing in the Gallagher Premiership, the top flight of the English rug ...

for group matches against Canada & New Zealand Maori and the Finals at

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium () in Twickenham, south-west London, England, is a rugby union stadium owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union governing body, which has its headquarters there. The England national rugby union team play ...

where he played against Scotland 'A'.

FC Grenoble

After 6 seasons at

, Andrew's career turned over a new page and saw him signing in the 09/10 season for French

Rugby Pro D2 Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was in ...

Club

. After only one season with FC Grenoble he was named captain and lead them to 2nd place in the 2010/11 Pro D2 Championship. In 2011 he signed a new 2-year contract with the club taking him through to the end of the 2012/13 season. In the first year of his new contract he guided

to Champions of France Pro D2 and taking

back to

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

for the first time since 2006. For the following 2 years

successfully retained their position in

under his captaincy until his retirement in 2014.

Honours

Ireland A

While playing in Ireland for Connacht Rugby, he gained Irish residency and was selected to play for Ireland A in the 2007 Barclays Churchill Cup which was hosted at Exeter Chiefs' Sandy Park for group matches against Canada & New Zealand Maori and the Finals at Twickenham Stadium where Ireland beat Scotland 'A' in the Plate Final.

Other

In season 2015/2016 Andrew was inducted into the Connacht Rugby Supporters Clu
(Connacht Clan) Hall of Fame

Post playing career

In June 2014, Andrew retired from professional rugby at the age of 34. He immediately took on the role of Team Manager (Manager Sportif) at

which he occupied for two seasons. After the club was relegated to Pro D2, he became GM of Rugby Operations. In his second year of being GM of Rugby Operations he once again successfully guided

to Champions of France Pro D2 and taking

back once again to the

. In July 2018, after 16 years away from Australia Andrew made the decision to leave Europe and rugby to return to Brisbane where he lives with his wife and 3 children. Andrew now works in Business development and account management and is currently consulting in the sports analytics space.

References

Sources

www.lnr.fr

www.fcgrugby.com

www.connachtrugby.ie

www.magnersleague.com

www.ercrugby.com

www.irishrugby.ie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farley, Andrew 1980 births Irish rugby union players Australian rugby union players Connacht Rugby players Rugby union locks Living people Queensland Reds players Rugby union players from Brisbane People educated at Marist College Ashgrove