Gareth Owen (born 5 November 1988 in

Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge ...

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 ...

) is a Welsh

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 plays at

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

and

Flyhalf In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

. He currently plays for Newcastle Falcons in England's second division, the RFU Championship.

Career

Owen started his domestic club rugby with Maesteg RFC where he played alongside several greats such as Alan Bateman, Kevin Ellis and Jonathan Davies. He spent the 2006 season with

Celtic Crusaders 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 ...

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 ...

but didn't ever make the first team. In June 2007 he gained a development contract with the Ospreys region for the 2007–2008 season after impressing in the U19 IRB World Championships. Owen earned a Wales U19 squad call up ahead of the spring internationals in February 2007, and made a replacement appearance in the victory over the Irish and scored an injury time try against France. Owen subsequently earned himself a place in the Wales U19 squad for the 2007 IRB U19 World Championships in Belfast. He played in all five games of the tournament, making the starting XV on four occasions and coming on as a replacement in the victory over Samoa. Owen scored three tries over the course of the Championship, against Argentina and New Zealand in the Division A knockout stages and against Australia in the third place play-off. In November 2007 Owen received a call-up to the

Wales Sevens The Wales national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens and in the Commonwealth Games. Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by Engl ...

squad ahead of the initial legs of the 2007–2008 IRB Sevens World Series, though he sustained a knee injury in the first day of play at the Dubai Sevens against Samoa. In May 2009 Owen was called up to the senior Wales Rugby team as one of 11 uncapped players for their summer tour of North America even though he had played most of the season for the semi-professional Bridgend Ravens in the

Principality Premiership The Welsh Premier Division, () known for sponsorship reasons as the Indigo Group Premiership, (''Uwch Gynghrair grŵp indigo'') is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for the 1990–91 season. Compe ...

(suffering relegation), he was forced to withdraw from the squad due to an injury. He played regularly for the Ospreys in the following two seasons, before suffering an ACT injury that ruled him out of the entire 2011/12 season, which eventually led to him being released by the Ospreys in July 2012 and he joined the Scarlets On 30 June 2017, Owen left the Scarlets to join English

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

club

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 ...

ahead of the 2017–18 season. He made his debut for Leicester at the Madejski Stadium in a 28–27 win over

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

, Owen was sin binned in the 33rd minute for a dangerous tackle. On 15 May 2019 he was confirmed as leaving for Newcastle Falcons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Gareth 1988 births Rugby union players from Bridgend Living people Welsh rugby union players Bridgend RFC players Maesteg RFC players Ospreys (rugby union) players Scarlets players Leicester Tigers players Rugby sevens players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for Wales Newcastle Falcons players