James King (born 24 July 1990) is a former Welsh rugby union player. A flanker or lock forward, he played for the Ospreys regional rugby side and the Welsh national side, having previously played for

Aberavon Aberavon ( cy, Aberafan) is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a distri ...

. In January 2012 King suffered a lacerated ear injury in a collision with

Xavier Rush Xavier Joseph Rush (born 13 July 1977, in Auckland) is a former New Zealand rugby union footballer. He is a former All Black and played professional rugby in Wales for Cardiff Blues where he is the former captain. Career Rush played domestic rug ...

of the

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 ...

and had to undergo emergency plastic surgery at Morriston Hospital, Swansea. In January 2013 he was selected in the 35-man

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 ...

squad for the

2013 Six Nations championship The 2013 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2013 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 14th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship ...

. He made his international debut against Japan on 8 June 2013 and would go on to win 11 caps for the national side, including at the

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

. He was forced to retire from professional rugby in January 2021 aged just 30, after failing to recover from an injury sustained whilst playing against Ulster in 2019.

References

External links

Ospreys profile

Wales Profile

Welsh rugby union players Wales international rugby union players Ospreys (rugby union) players Aberavon RFC players Living people 1990 births Welsh people of Australian descent Rugby union flankers People educated at Alun School, Mold Rugby union players from Victoria (state) {{Wales-rugbyunion-bio-stub