Benjamin Woods (born 9 June 1982) is a retired

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 ...

player who played 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 ...

and

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

as an openside flanker. Woods started his professional career at

in 2003 but suffered a badly broken leg at the end of his first season and was sidelined for 18 months. On his return to the game he quickly made his mark on the Falcons first team and earned a call up to play for the

England Saxons England A is England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England Saxons. England A play a key role in the development of emer ...

in the

2006 Churchill Cup The 2006 Churchill Cup was a rugby union competition played between the second teams of various top tier international rugby nations and the first teams of traditionally less prominent teams, such as Canada and the United States. The 2006 tournamen ...

. He was also selected for

2007 Churchill Cup The 2007 Churchill Cup was held from May 18 to June 2, 2007. It was the fifth year of the Churchill Cup. Six rugby union teams took part: Canada, England Saxons, Ireland A, New Zealand Māori, Scotland A, and the USA. Format The teams were s ...

. Woods played in the Saxons side that defeated Ireland A on 1 February 2008 at Welford Road. Woods left the Falcons and moved to Leicester Tigers in 2008 along with

Toby Flood Tobias Gerald Albert Cecil Lieven Flood (born 8 August 1985) is an English rugby union coach and former player. He is currently kicking and skills coach at Newcastle Falcons in Premiership Rugby. During his playing career his position was fly ...

. Injury to

Lewis Moody Lewis Walton Moody MBE (born 12 June 1978 in Ascot) is an English retired rugby union player. He played for Leicester Tigers and Bath Rugby and was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. Moody is known for the enthusiasm with which he play ...

allowed Woods to make his mark at Leicester and he played in 23 games for them in his first season, culminating in a try scoring appearance in the

2009 Heineken Cup Final The 2009 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 2008–09 Heineken Cup, the 14th season of Europe's top club rugby union competition. The match was played on 23 May 2009 at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh; this was the second time that the ...

. He also started that year's Premiership final as Leicester defeated London Irish. The following year he was a replacement as Leicester retained the Premiership. Woods started in all three games of the

2009 Churchill Cup The 2009 Churchill Cup took place between June 6 and June 21, 2009, marking the seventh year of the Churchill Cup. For the first time in the tournament's history, all rounds were held in the United States. This was done in an effort to reduce the ...

. He captained Tigers for the first time in the vital LV= Cup win at Harlequins in 2011/12.

Retirement

On 5 September 2012, Woods announced via Twitter that he would be retiring from rugby due to a wrist injury.

References

External links

Tigers profileNewcastle profileEngland profile
1982 births Living people Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham Alumni of Hughes Hall, Cambridge Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players Durham University RFC players English rugby union players Leicester Tigers players Newcastle Falcons players People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Barnsley {{England-rugbyunion-bio-stub