Martyn Benjamin Wood (born 25 April 1977 in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...

) was the Director of Rugby at

Yorkshire Carnegie Leeds Tykes (formerly Leeds RUFC, Leeds Carnegie and Yorkshire Carnegie) is an English rugby union club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the National League 1. The club was founded as Headingley FC, but renamed in 1991 when it j ...

in the

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men’s English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when ...

, he was previously a

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 ...

scrum-half who played for

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...

and

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

. In 2001 he gained 2 caps for .

Early career

Wood attended

Harrogate Grammar School Harrogate Grammar School is a co-educational academy school and sixth form in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. It has around 1,900 pupils in the main school. A 2022 Ofsted inspection rated the school as 'Outstanding' in all five areas of ...

from 1988 to 1995 where he played in the School Rugby team. Wood would become a successful part of the Senior 1st XV. He also played for

Club career

Wood began his career at

, making his debut in 1996 and remained there until 2003. Whilst at Wasps he won the Challenge Cup in 2003 (scoring a try in the final) and the domestic Anglo-Welsh Cup (currently known as the LV Cup) in 1999 and 2000 (though he was not part of the squad for the 1999 final). He was also part of the Wasps team which won the Premiership in 1996/97 and 2002/03, In the summer of 2003 he joined

and signed a new contract with them in 2005. However, in November 2005 he injured his neck in a freak trampolining accident, leading to him having to retire from the game exactly a year later.

International career

Wood was called up as an injury replacement for the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...

and also as injury cover for the victorious

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

. However he was never officially added to the 2003 squad after certain players recovered, meaning he was unable to pick up a medal for the 2003 success despite flying out to Australia. Despite his World Cup involvement, he only received two caps, both as a replacement in games against Canada and USA in 2001, scoring a try against Canada in the process.

Coaching career

On 24 July 2019 Wood was appointed as Director of Rugby at

in the

, he was dismissed from the post less than a year later after losing the first 13 matches of the 2019–20 Season.

Honours

* English Champions titles: 2 **1996/97, 2002/03 * RFU Tetley's Bitter Cup & Powergen Cup / Powergen Anglo Welsh Cup titles: 2 **1998/99, 1999/2000 * Parker Pen Challenge Cup titles: 1 ** 2002/03

References

External links

scrum.com statistics

wasps.com statistics
1977 births Living people England international rugby union players English rugby union coaches English rugby union players Rugby union scrum-halves People educated at Harrogate Grammar School Rugby union players from Harrogate Harrogate RUFC players {{England-rugbyunion-bio-stub