Jon Welsh (born 13 October 1986) is a

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

international rugby union player most recently with

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 ...

. Welsh was previously at

Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became t ...

. Welsh is a former Junior boxing champion, in the end choosing to play rugby professionally.

Club career

Welsh begun playing professionally for Glasgow Warriors around 2008 and was named in the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

Dream Team at the end of the 2011/12 season. One of the high points of Welsh's club rugby career came at

. He was a key member of the

2015 Pro12 Grand Final The 2015 Pro12 Grand Final was the final match of the 2014–15 Pro12 season. The 2014–15 season was the first with Guinness as the title sponsor and the sixth ever League Grand Final. The final was played between Glasgow Warriors and Munster. ...

winning squad and played for Glasgow in the playoff final against Irish side

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

. Glasgow had a year previously, lost the 2014 final against

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

. Welsh also featured in that final, making it second time lucky in 2015. Welsh signed for

later the same year although his time at Falcons was frequently disrupted by injury, especially towards the end of his time with the club and after an ACL rupture early in the 2019-20 season as he sought to regain fitness his contract was terminated in December 2019. After a twelve month hiatus, in January 2021 Welsh rejoined Falcons on a short-term deal until the end of the season. Unfortunately he appeared just once in this period as another serious injury was sustained against

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 ...

when he dislocated his shoulder. At the end of the 2021 season Welsh was released by Falcons.

International career

On 1 September 2015 Welsh was named in Vern Cotter's

squad for 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 ...

. On 18 October 2015 he was involved in a controversial incident in the final minutes of Scotland's quarter final 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 ...

. Scotland were defending a 34–32 lead going into the final minutes when a penalty was given by referee

Craig Joubert Craig Paul Joubert (born 8 November 1977) is a South African professional rugby union referee and a Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby. Joubert officiated in domestic first class matches in South Africa since 2003, in matches in the ...

for an apparent offside offence committed by Welsh. The ball had been knocked forward by John Hardie and was also touched by Australian scrum-half Nick Phipps before Welsh picked the ball up. Had Joubert deemed Phipps' touch to be intentional then the penalty would have been downgraded to an Australian scrum.

Bernard Foley Bernard Foley (born 8 September 1989) is an Australian rugby player of Irish descent. He plays professionally for the Australia national rugby team and the New South Wales Waratahs in Super Rugby. He can cover both fullback and fly-half a ...

kicked the resulting penalty and sent Australia through.

References

External links

Newcastle Falcons profile
1986 births Living people Scottish rugby union players Newcastle Falcons players Scotland international rugby union players Rugby union props People educated at Eastwood High School, Newton Mearns Rugby union players from Glasgow Glasgow Hutchesons Aloysians RFC players Glasgow Warriors players Whitecraigs RFC players Aberdeen GSFP RFC players Ayr RFC players West of Scotland FC players Glasgow Hawks players Scotland Club XV international rugby union players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub