Peter Betham (born 6 January 1989) is a professional

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 ...

player. He currently plays for the

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

in the ProD2. He was a representative player for Australia in international rugby matches. His usual position is

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

or fullback.

Family and early career

Betham was born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, New Zealand to parents of Samoan heritage. His family moved to Australia and he was brought up in Sydney where he started playing rugby league with the

Coogee Randwick Wombats The Coogee Randwick Wombats are an Australian rugby league football team based in Coogee, New South Wales and Randwick, New South Wales a suburb of south-central Sydney and play in the South Sydney District Junior Rugby Football League. Notable ...

club at the age of 10. He played high school rugby for St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill located on Sydney's Lower North Shore. He became friends with St. Joseph's teammate

Kurtley Beale Kurtley James Beale (born 6 January 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union representative player who has made over 90 national representative appearances in a ten-year playing career at the world-class level. He is of Aboriginal desce ...

and for two years the pair backed up with Kensington in the South Sydney junior rugby league competition. Having attended a public primary school, Peter represented Sydney East PSSA at the State Championships in 2001 at Kiama. His teammate Rob Horne and Peter went on to represent NSW PSSA that year. Betham played for NSW Schools in the 2005 National U16 Championship. He subsequently played for the Australia A Schools team that went on to beat New Zealand. In 2006 Betham toured Fiji and New Zealand with the

Australian Schoolboys The Australian Schoolboys refer to junior teams that represent Australia in various sports. The name is mainly used in rugby league, rugby union and baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players ...

team. In 2007 he played rugby while studying American history at Sydney University, he played rugby for Wesley College and was selected in the Australian U19 Rugby World Championship squad. He also became a holder of an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) scholarship, one of 26.

Rugby union career

Betham played for the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

in the Super 14 competition, but injuries kept him off the field until mid 2009 when he rejoined Sydney University where he helped the club win the Sydney competition that year. In 2010 he continued to play for Sydney Uni, and trained with the Waratahs' squad, as an "unsigned winger" and played in several Tahs' pre-season games. In March 2010 Betham signed with 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 the

2011 Super Rugby season The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16t ...

, with Rebels assistant coach Damian Hill describing him as "one of the most dynamic and athletic young backs" in Australian rugby. He spent 2011 in Victoria before returning to NSW. In February 2012 Betham was named to play on the wing in the Tahs' pre-season match against Tonga. In April 2015 Betham signed for Leicester Tigers. He will join them after the 2015 Super Rugby season finishes mid-2015. Betham marked his Tigers' debut with a try in their opening win of the season over London Irish in October 2015. The tigers have used Betham in both the outside centre role and on the wing. In January 2017 Betham signed a new contract to stay at the club. In May 2017 Betham signed a contract with Clermont Auvergne for two years. On 11 March 2021, Betham would leave Clermont to sign for

Pro D2 Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was in ...

side

ahead of the 2021-22 season.

References

External links

Waratahs profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betham, Peter 1989 births Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players ACT Brumbies players Melbourne Rebels players New South Wales Waratahs players Tasman rugby union players Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union wings Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent New Zealand emigrants to Australia Living people Sydney Stars players Leicester Tigers players Australian expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in England Expatriate rugby union players in France ASM Clermont Auvergne players Rugby union players from Wellington City Provence Rugby players