Darrell Goulding (born 3 March 1988) is an English former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer. He spent nine years of his career with

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

, with whom he won the

Super League Grand Final The Super League Grand Final is the championship-deciding game of rugby league's Super League competition. It is played between two teams who have qualified via the Super League Play-Off series. The winning team receives the Super League Trop ...

in 2010 and 2013, and also played for

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

and

Salford City Reds The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, who play in the Super League. Formed in 1873, they have won six Championships and one Challenge Cup. Their home ground since 2012 has been t ...

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. He played as either a or on the .

Early life

Goulding was born in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England, he is a former St. Edmund Arrowsmith pupil. he played for the junior amateur club Wigan St. Patrick's in

Ince Ince may refer to: *Ince, Cheshire, a village in Cheshire, UK *Ince-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, UK *Ince (UK Parliament constituency), a former constituency covering Ince-in-Makerfield *Ince (ward), an electoral ward covering ...

, Wigan. He was part of Wigan's scholarship scheme and played in Wigan's Academy U18s in 2004 and U21s in 2005.

Club career

Wigan

Goulding signed a two-year full-time contract with Wigan in July 2005, and was drafted into the first team

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the first time in August 2005 and shortly after made his début against Widnes. Goulding scored his first try for Wigan in the 48-22 loss to

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

on 9 June 2006. Darrell Goulding

On 6 April 2009,

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

centre

Martin Gleeson Martin Gleeson (born 25 May 1980) is the assistant attack coach at the rugby union club; Wasps RFC. He is the former assistant coach at the rugby league club Salford Red Devils in the Super League, and an English former professional rugby lea ...

transferred to Wigan in a deal rumoured to involve Goulding, since he had only been played twice in Wigan's first ten Super League matches. However, this rumour was rejected when Goulding was released on loan to

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

on 14 April. Goulding made his Reds' début in

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

, France in the defeat by the

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons ( French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from ...

. He made his home début a week later at the Willows, scoring two tries - including a 70-metre interception score against Hull. He added a third for the Salford club in his next Super League game - the away victory at Huddersfield. After returning to Wigan in 2010, Goulding had a breakthrough year, filling in for the injured

Amos Roberts Amos Roberts (born 2 November 1980) is an Indigenous Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A Country New South Wales representative prolific try-scoring back, he played in Australia's National Rugby League for the St. George ...

for the majority of games. He finished the year with 20 appearances and 25 tries, joint second highest scorer in 2010. Goulding played in the

2010 Super League Grand Final The 2010 Super League Grand Final was the 13th official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding game of Super League XV. Held on Saturday 2 October 2010, at Manchester's Old Trafford stadium, the match was contested by English club ...

victory over St. Helens at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

. His 2011 season started against St. Helens at the season-opening

Magic Weekend The Magic Weekend (known as the Dacia Magic Weekend for sponsorship reasons) is an annual event organised by the Rugby Football League in which an entire round of Super League matches is played over a weekend at a single stadium to promote the s ...

event. After opening his try tally at

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

in Round 2, he scored again at

in Round 4 and featured in the

2011 World Club Challenge The 2011 World Club Challenge (known as the Probiz World Club Challenge due to sponsorship) was contested by Super League XV champions, Wigan Warriors, and 2010 NRL Premiers, the St. George Illawarra Dragons, at Wigan's home ground, DW Stadium. T ...

team that lost to

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint- ...

. Goulding made five further consecutive appearances, including a try in Round 8 against

, but was dropped after their loss in Round 9 to

, in which Goulding's error under the high ball had handed

Frédéric Vaccari Frédéric Vaccari (born 7 November 1987) is a French professional rugby league footballer who plays for the Palau Broncos in the French Elite One Championship. A France international representative , he previously played for Catalans Dragons in ...

a try. He reappeared for Wigan's Round 13 victory over

Crusaders RL Crusaders Rugby League ( cy, Croesgadwyr Rygbi'r Gynghrair) was a professional rugby league club based in Bridgend and later in Wrexham, Wales. They played for six seasons in the Rugby Football League competitions, including three years in the ...

. He played in the

2013 Challenge Cup Final The 2013 Challenge Cup Final was the 112th cup-deciding game of the rugby league 2013 Challenge Cup Season. It was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 24 August 2013, kick off 15:00. The final was contested by Hull F.C. and Wigan Warriors. The ...

victory over

Hull F.C. Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in West Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and were ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. It was Goulding who also scored the try just before half time in Wigan's 2013 Grand Final win over the

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warrington Z ...

. His try brought the score back to 16-6 after the Warriors went 16-2 down and Wigan came back in the second half to win 30-16 at

Hull KR

In July 2014,

announced that Goulding had signed a three-year contract with the club starting from the 2015 season. Just 8 matches into his Hull KR career, however, Goulding was forced to retire from the sport due to a string of concussion injuries. His retirement was formally announced on Monday 1 June 2015.Darrell Goulding: Hull KR centre forced to retire aged 27
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International career

Goulding was selected for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

U17s, England U15 and U16s while part of the Wigan scholarship system. He was also included in the England U17s squad to take on the touring

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

in 2005. In September 2010 he was called into the senior England squad for the first time for the

2010 Four Nations The 2010 Rugby League Four Nations tournament was played in Australia and New Zealand in October and November 2010. The tournament was the second time the Four Nations had been held, following on from the 2009 edition held in England and France. ...

series in Australia and New Zealand, starting against the Kiwis in a 24-10 defeat in Wellington and also against the Kangaroos in a 34-14 defeat in Melbourne.

References

External links

*(archived by web.archive.org
Wigan Warriors profileDarrell Goulding Statistics at wigan.rlfans.com
1988 births Living people England national rugby league team players English rugby league players Hull Kingston Rovers players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Wigan Rugby league wingers Salford Red Devils players Wigan Warriors players {{England-rugbyleague-bio-stub