Michael Lipman (born 16 January 1980, in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) 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 it ...

Flanker. Lipman played professionally in both the United Kingdom and Australia and has also played at International level for

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 ...

Early career in Australia

Lipman was born in

but was brought up in New South Wales, Australia. He was schooled in Sydney at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill. He played for the under 21 New South Wales and Australian teams, and played for the

Warringah Rugby Club Warringah Rugby Club is a rugby union club based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, New South Wales. Only located 25 km from the city centre, the club is close to many magnificent beaches, the Sydney Academy of Sport and Narrabeen Lake. T ...

. Lipman played for Waratahs 'B' but was unable to secure a contract.

Domestic career in England

He joined the

Bristol Shoguns Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

club in the summer of 2001 and played in the

Zurich Premiership 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 ...

during the 2001/02 and 2002/03 seasons, earning 21 games in total. After Bristol were relegated in the 2002/03 season, Lipman signed for Bath. In 2003 where he played over twenty games for Bath throughout the 2003/04 season, including Heineken Cup games. The following season he played 19 games, scoring three tries throughout that season. He missed the end of the season after rupturing a tendon in his ankle in February 2005. He had less game time throughout the 2005–06 season, due to a double fracture of his cheekbone and eye socket which was sustained in a pre-season win over

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played its home m ...

in August 2005. After sustaining injuries in late 2006, Michael Lipman threw himself into community work during his time out of action, and his cheerful and committed attitude won him the Community Player of the Year award for 2006/07. He was unavailable until January 2007, but marked his return by scoring a try against Montpellier in the

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

, and finished the season back as the first choice 7, and in the

England Saxons England A is England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England Saxons. England A play a key role in the development of emer ...

squad for the

2007 Churchill Cup The 2007 Churchill Cup was held from May 18 to June 2, 2007. It was the fifth year of the Churchill Cup. Six rugby union teams took part: Canada, England Saxons, Ireland A, New Zealand Māori, Scotland A, and the USA. Format The teams were s ...

. During the 2007–08 season he brought up the 100 cap milestone of appearances for Bath Rugby and played in the final of the 2007–08 European Challenge Cup. He was joint-captain with Alex Crockett for the 2008–09 season.

International career

Lipman was selected to be a member of the Senior 2004 summer tour of Australasia. He made his debut for

against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Lipman had a great 2005–06 season despite the injuries in early 2005. His form saw him selected for England's 2006 summer tour of Australia to contest the

Cook Cup The Ella-Mobbs Trophy (formerly the Cook Cup from 1997–2021) is a rugby union trophy contested between Australia and England. The Cook Cup was established in 1997 when the Wallabies and England contracted to play each other bi-annually for a ...

. He made his first start in the second

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

at Docklands Stadium, Melbourne. In August 2006 he was included in England's Elite Player Squad for the 2006–07 season. The 2007–08 season saw Lipman’s continued re-emergence on both the international and domestic front. He practically made the number seven shirt his own that season and his excellent form for Bath Rugby was rewarded with a call-up into England’s squad for the

2008 Six Nations The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, the 114th series of the international championship. Fifteen ...

, winning him four

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. He had previously won 3 caps for England. He started for England at 7 against New Zealand on the All Blacks' Grand Slam tour of 2008 in the 2008 end of year rugby tests, his tenth and final International appearance.

Controversy

Michael Lipman resigned from Bath along with Alex Crockett and

Andrew Higgins Andrew Jackson Higgins (28 August 1886 – 1 August 1952) was an American businessman and boatbuilder who founded Higgins Industries, the New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans-based manufacturer of "LCVP (United States), Higgins boats" (Landing ...

on 1 June 2009 in controversial circumstances amid allegations of refusing to take drug tests which the players deny. Lipman, Crockett and Higgins were among six players who were linked with allegations of drug use during end of season celebrations in London on 10 May 2009. Former Australia lock

Justin Harrison Justin Harrison, born 20 April 1974 in Sydney, is a former Australian international rugby union player, who played lock forward and is currently the head of the Australian Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) Career Discovered in 1993 by Gold ...

resigned from the club after also failing to take a drugs test and later received an eight-month suspension after admitting to taking cocaine. Two other players took drug tests and were cleared. Lipman, Crockett and Higgins did not take a test and resigned from the club shortly before they were due to attend an internal disciplinary hearing. The

RFU The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby (WR) in 1886. It pro ...

announced on 17 June that they would face an RFU disciplinary panel charged with "conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game".

Return to Australia

In April 2010 Lipman played for

Warringah Warringah is a name taken from the local Aboriginal word for Middle Harbour, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It may refer to: *Division of Warringah, an electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives created in 1922 *Electoral ...

in the New South Wales

Shute Shield The Shute Shield is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end ...

competition. In 2011 Lipman joined the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

for team's inaugural

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

in Super Rugby. In early 2012 Lipman began to show off his skills as a 'roving reporter' and appeared in a number o
videos posted on Youtube
In one he interviewed Hugh Pyle (a new Vice Captain) and

John Muggleton John Muggleton (born 16 January 1960) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who represented the Parramatta Eels in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership, New South Wales in State of Origin competition and the Australian nation ...

(Coach) about preparations for the

2012 Super Rugby season The 2012 Super Rugby season was the second season of the current 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involves teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as FxPro Super R ...

. He spoke with Gareth Delve (No.8) and

Mark Gerrard Mark Gerrard (born 4 September 1982) is a former Australian professional rugby union footballer. He currently is the assistant coach for the Austin Gilgronis in Major League Rugby (MLR) competition in the United States. In 2011, he was one o ...

(full back/wing) about their experience playing the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

in a pre-season trial. Lipman also interviewed Nick Phipps (half-back) and Gerrard in other videos recorded after the trial. In June 2012, Lipman announced his retirement from professional rugby. His 2022 book ''Concussion'', written with his wife Frankie, describes his battle with early-onset dementia caused by head injuries during his playing career.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipman, Michael 1980 births Living people English rugby union players Bristol Bears players Bath Rugby players Melbourne Rebels players England international rugby union players Rugby union flankers People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill Doping cases in rugby union English expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in Australia British expatriates in Australia New South Wales Waratahs players Rugby union players from London