Paul James Grayson, (born 30 May 1971 in
Chorley
Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
) is the former assistant head coach of
Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...
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 ...
club. He formerly played at
fly-half
In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...
for
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
, for whom he was the all-time leading points scorer, and
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 ...
. He is known as "
Larry
Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence (given name), Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names.
Larry may refer to the following:
People Arts and entertainment
*Larry D. Alexander, American arti ...
" or "Grase".
Prior to
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
, he played for
Preston Grasshoppers
Preston Grasshoppers Rugby Football Club is an English rugby union team from Preston, Lancashire. The men's senior team play in the RFU National League 2 North, a level 4 league in the RFU league pyramid.
History
The club was founded on 28 Se ...
and
Waterloo
Waterloo most commonly refers to:
* Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat
* Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place.
Waterloo may also refer to:
Other places
Antarctica
*King George Island (S ...
. Paul also had a spell at Accrington Stanley as a youth team player. Whilst at Northampton he started in the victorious
2000 Heineken Cup Final
The 2000 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 1999–2000 Heineken Cup, the fifth season of Europe's top club rugby union competition. The match was played on 27 May 2000 at Twickenham Stadium in London. The match was contested by Nort ...
, kicking all 9 of Northampton's points as they defeated
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 ...
.
Grayson made his international debut against
Western Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); a ...
in December 1995. He was part of the 2003
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
winning
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 ...
squad.
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
announced on 20 November 2012 that Grayson would be leaving the club by mutual consent.
Grayson has three sons, one of whom,
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
, is an established professional rugby player who plays for
Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...
. His other two sons, Joel and Ethan are in the Northampton Saints EPDG youth setup.
See also
*
List of top English points scorers and try scorers
The England national rugby union team competed in the first international rugby match in 1871 against Scotland. Since then they have played in 746 matches.
The record for most Test points by an England player is held by Jonny Wilkinson, who scor ...
References
External links
Saints ProfileSporting heroes 12
Profile at scrum.com
Northampton Saints news item
1971 births
Living people
British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England
England international rugby union players
English rugby union players
Lancashire County RFU players
Members of the Order of the British Empire
Northampton Saints players
Rugby union fly-halves
Rugby union players from Chorley
Waterloo R.F.C. players
{{England-rugbyunion-bio-stub