Pat O’Connor (born 7 January 1985) is an Australian

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. He has played for the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...

and the Waratahs in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

, and for

SU Agen Sporting Union Agen Lot-et-Garonne (), commonly referred to as SU Agen, Agen () or SUALG, is a French professional rugby union club based in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne that competes in the Pro D2, France's second division of rugby. Founded in 1908, A ...

in the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

. The position he usually plays is

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

Early life

O'Connor was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia. He attended secondary school at

Marist College Ashgrove , motto_translation = Act Courageously , location = Ashgrove, Brisbane, Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Queensland , pushpin_ima ...

, where he played rugby for the 1st XV. During his final year at Ashgrove in 2002, he was selected to represent Queensland at the Australian Schools Rugby Championships.

Rugby career

In 2003, O’Connor was invited to join the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

Rugby College from the

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

club in

. He played for the Queensland U19 side in the Trans Tasman Challenge competition in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, he signed with the

to be a start-up player for their first season in 2006. O'Connor made his

debut for the Force against the Waratahs on 17 March 2006. Later that year he was selected for the Australian U21 team and the Prime Minister's XV. At the start of 2007, O'Connor tore a cruciate ligament in the final training run before a trial match against the Crusaders. Five months after the resulting knee surgery, he re-tore the ligament leading to a second reconstruction. As a result, did not play Super Rugby for the Western Force again until 2009. In the latter part of 2009, O'Connor joined the Northland province in

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 ...

, where he played in the

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Global School, an English medium co-educational day school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Tekn ...

for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. In October 2010, O'Connor signed with the Waratahs. That month, he was selected in the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

training squad for the 2010 Spring Tour. O'Connor was capped 6 times playing for the Waratahs in the 2011

season. He then signed with

for the 2011–12

season in France, where he won 6 caps.

References

External links

Waratahs Rugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Pat 1985 births Living people Australian rugby union players Rugby union locks New South Wales Waratahs players Western Force players Northland rugby union players SU Agen Lot-et-Garonne players Rugby union players from Brisbane Expatriate rugby union players in France People educated at Marist College Ashgrove