Harry Alistair Ellis (born 17 May 1982 in
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
) is a retired English
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 ...
footballer who played
scrum half for
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 ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and the
British & Irish Lions
The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...
.
On 8 July 2010, Ellis announced his retirement from the game as a result of a persistent knee injury. He now works at his former school,
Leicester Grammar School, teaching
PE to
A-Level
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
and
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
students, and contributing to the coaching of its 1st XV and other sporting teams.
Club career
Ellis first played
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 ...
as a 6-year-old with the South Leicester club. He studied at Bushloe High School and later
Leicester Grammar School, where he represented Leicester Schools and the Midlands at every age level. He also became a teacher for a short period of time.
He spent a year with the Wigston club South Leicester RUFC before he finally joined the
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 ...
Academy where he combined playing with further education at
De Montfort University
De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...
. He worked his way through the Tigers lower teams and continued his representative career, playing for both the England U19 and U21 sides. He has also featured in the
England Sevens
The England national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games. England's best finish in the Sevens Series is second place, which they have achieved four times, most recently i ...
squad along with his teammate
Louis Deacon
Louis Deacon (born 7 October 1980, in Leicester) is a former English professional rugby union footballer. He played lock.
Career
His playing career started as an eight-year-old, playing with Wigston, before joining Syston RFC and as a Ratc ...
.
In August 2001, he made his first team
Tigers
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...
debut in the Orange Cup game in
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
. In Leicester's 2002
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 ...
quarter final, Ellis scored the only try of the game, breaking away from a ruck and sliding over on the wet ground. Ellis went on to score a superb individual try that helped defeat
Llanelli
Llanelli ("St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. ...
in the
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 ...
semi-final at Nottingham. In the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
itself Ellis came on as a replacement as Leicester emerged victorious. He was named Tigers’ Players Young Player of the Year for the 2001–2 season.
He finally established himself as a regular in the
No. 9 spot during the 2003–04 season, making 19 appearances and helping Tigers come back from a poor start and a turbulent mid-season to reach the Zurich Wild Card final.
Ellis suffered knee ligament damage against Bristol on 5 May 2007 in the Guinness Premiership semi-final play-off. He played an influential role in the Tigers' domestic double success, but the injury meant him missing out on the Premiership and Heineken Cup finals.
The
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 ...
semi-final against
Cardiff Blues
Cardiff Rugby ( cy, Rygbi Caerdydd) are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby competitions.
Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms ...
resulted in a historic sudden death kicking competition. The shoot-out ended before Ellis's turn came up – though it was a close run thing, as either he or
Tom Croft
Tom Croft (born 7 November 1985) is a retired rugby union player. He played 173 games for Leicester Tigers between 2005–17 winning four Premiership Rugby titles, played 40 times for between 2008–2015, was part of the squad for the ...
were to follow
Jordan Crane. Although the Tigers fell at the final hurdle of the Heineken Cup, they won the
2008–09 Guinness Premiership final, which Ellis did not feature in but was an unused replacement.
Ellis started the 2009/10 season as first-choice scrum-half for Leicester, but suffered an injury in training, which left him out of the game for a significant part of the season. He returned to play in the Guinness A league, and helped the Tigers A team to victory.
His last game for the senior side came against
Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...
in the LV= Cup.
International career
Ellis played for the England A, Under 16 Group and Under 18 Group schools sides. In fact, he played for the England Under 18 side when he was only 16.
Ellis was selected on England's 2004 summer tour as third choice
scrum half behind
Matt Dawson
Matthew James Sutherland Dawson, MBE (born 31 October 1972) is an English retired rugby union player who played scrum half for Northampton Saints and then London Wasps. During his international career he toured with the British & Irish Lion ...
and
Andy Gomarsall
Andrew Charles Thomas Gomarsall MBE (born 24 July 1974, in Durham) is a former rugby union player who played at scrum-half for Leeds Carnegie and England.
He previously played for Gloucester Rugby, Bedford and Wasps. Until May 2006 he was cont ...
and did not play, however he made his
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
debut from the bench in their 32–16 win over the
Springboks
The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...
in autumn 2004. He also made an appearance as a replacement in the game against
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
He subsequently became a regular fixture in the
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
side, rotating with
Matt Dawson
Matthew James Sutherland Dawson, MBE (born 31 October 1972) is an English retired rugby union player who played scrum half for Northampton Saints and then London Wasps. During his international career he toured with the British & Irish Lion ...
during the 2005
Six Nations. Ellis scored his debut try for England in the 2005 Calcutta Cup win over Scotland. He lost out to Matt Dawson for the opening two Autumn tests in 2005 but took his chance superbly against
Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...
, scoring an outstanding solo try in what was comfortably his best test match performance. This helped secured him the no 9 shirt for four games of the
2006 6 Nations.
He was left out of the Summer development tour to Australia, but was chosen again for the Elite Player England Squad for the 2006/2007 season. Ellis was not included in the 2006 Autumn internationals that saw England head coach
Andy Robinson
Richard Andrew Robinson OBE (born 3 April 1964) is an English rugby union coach and retired player. He was the director of rugby at Bristol until November 2016. He is the former head coach of Scotland and England. From September 2019 to Dec ...
lose his job, but when
Brian Ashton was appointed as his successor Ellis was named in the team to start England's 2007 Six Nations opener against Scotland. In this game Ellis came of age and it was arguably one of his best performances in an England shirt. He consistently retained his place throughout the
2007 Six Nations
The 2007 Six Nations Championship was the eighth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 113th series of the international championship. Fifteen mat ...
, starting in every game and scoring a try in the loss to Wales.
Ellis was ruled out of the
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...
due to the knee injury suffered in the Premiership.
He had a very successful
2009 Six Nations
The 2009 Six Nations Championship, known as the RBS 6 Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 10th Six Nations Championship, and the 115th international championship, an annual rugby union competition contested by the six major European national ...
tournament, starting for England as a result of the ankle injury to
Danny Care
Daniel Stuart Care (born 2 January 1987) is an English rugby union player who plays for Harlequins in the Premiership as a scrum-half.
He has played for England national team since 2008 and has won 87 caps. He previously played for England ...
,
and went on to score two tries in a man-of-the-match performance against , where his opposite number was, unusually,
Mauro Bergamasco
Mauro Bergamasco (born 1 May 1979) is a former Italian rugby union footballer who last played for Zebre. He predominantly played as an open-side flanker, although his versatility means that he had also played a number of international games on th ...
.
He started all subsequent Six Nations matches, where he played scrum-half to former teammate
Andy Goode, and then current teammate
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- ...
's fly-half. His last game for England came in the Calcutta Cup win over .
He was picked for the 2009
British and Irish Lions
The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...
tour, where he played as a substitute in the final Test win against the Springboks in Ellis Park.
References
External links
Tigers profileEngland profileLions profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Harry
1982 births
Living people
Rugby union players from Leicestershire
England international rugby union players
English rugby union coaches
English rugby union players
British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England
Rugby union scrum-halves
Alumni of De Montfort University
People educated at Leicester Grammar School
Leicester Tigers players