Philip John Vickery MBEDL (born 14 March 1976) is a former English rugby union
tighthead prop
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– ...
and member of the England squad. He was a member of England's World Cup winning squad in 2003, playing in all seven matches in the tournament, and is a former England captain. Vickery ended his club rugby career at London Wasps, joining the London side in 2006 after eleven years with Gloucester Rugby. Given the nickname "Raging Bull", he played in three Rugby World Cups, including as England captain in the 2007 tournament, and toured Australia and South Africa with the British & Irish Lions.
Made his debut for Bolingey Barbarians Sunday 25th Sept 2022 vs Bude vets.
Early years
The son of a dairy farmer, Vickery was born to Cornish parents in
Barnstaple
Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...
, Devon, England and says he is proud to be a Cornishman and an Englishman. Educated at Budehaven School, his interest in sport developed as a youngster, and by age 12 he started playing rugby. By the age of 16 he gained his first National Representative honour, being picked for the England Schools U16s group.
Vickery left school age 16 and worked as a herdsman on his parents' farm. He remains a qualified cattle inseminator.
Vickery has an Oriental tattoo on his left shoulder which roughly translates to "''I'll fight you to the death''", and a bulldog tattoo on his right.
Career
He started with the Cornish club Bude, then moved to
Redruth
Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...
, during which time he first appeared in an England Colts side. In 1995, England 'A' coach Richard Hill persuaded the 19-year-old Vickery to join Gloucester Rugby, where he became known as "The Raging Bull". Whilst at Gloucester he started in the 2002 Zurich Championship Final (the year before winning the play-offs constituted winning the English title) in which Gloucester defeated
Bristol Rugby
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 ...
. The following year he missed their 2003 Powergen Cup Final triumph through injury.
His representative career went from strength to strength, with appearances for England U21s and Colts in the 1996–97 season.
In April 2006 he announced he was quitting Gloucester Rugby after 11 years and signed for Wasps in a 3-year deal. Vickery made his Wasps debut in their 23 – 13 win over London Irish on 8 October 2006. With Wasps he won both the
Heineken Cup
The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...
in 2007 and the 2008
Guinness 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 ...
title.
On 28 October 2010, Vickery was forced to retire from rugby after suffering from several neck injuries. He played his last game at Kingsholm against Gloucester on 25 September, which is where he started his career.
On 28 May 2012 Worcester Warriors announced that Vickery would join the Club as their new Assistant Forwards (Scrum) coach for the
forthcoming 2012-2013 season. After an unsuccessful season, Worcester made wholesale changes in the coaching staff, from head coach through the assistants, and Vickery was one of the casualties.
Representative career
Vickery made his England debut against Wales aged 21 on 21 February 1998, coming off the bench to replace Darren Garforth against Wales at Twickenham in the Five Nations tournament, a match England won 60–26. It was the completion of a rapid rise through the England set-up, after only 34 first team games for his club and just 81 days after his England A debut.
The Tour from Hell
Summer 1998 saw Vickery taking part in the tour of the Southern Hemisphere, part of an England squad which had been severely weakened by injury and player unavailability. In the space of a month, England were soundly defeated by
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
(76–0 in Brisbane on 6 June), twice by New Zealand (64–22 in Dunedin on 20 June and 40–10 in Auckland on 27 June) and finally by South Africa (18–0 in Cape Town on 4 July). There were also losses to New Zealand 'A', New Zealand Rugby Academy, and New Zealand Māori.
The tour had benefits for some players, bringing through future stars of the England side such as Vickery himself, Jonny Wilkinson, Danny Grewcock, Graham Rowntree, Austin Healey, Matt Dawson and Matt Perry, others effectively had their international careers ended.
Steve Ravenscroft
Stephen Charles Wood Ravenscroft (born in Bradford) is an English former rugby union footballer who played at centre for Saracens and London Welsh
London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club f ...
, Rob Fidler,
Jos Baxendell
Jos Baxendell (born 3 December 1972, in Manchester, England) Scrum.com is a former
, Spencer Brown and Tom Beim each gained two caps on the tour – and have not played for England since. Richard Pool-Jones, Scott Benton, Dominic Chapman and
Stuart Potter
Stuart Potter (born 11 November 1967 in Lichfield) is a retired rugby union centre who played for Nottingham, Leicester Tigers and . Potter won both the league and cup with Leicester.
Career
Potter started his career with a four-year spell w ...
only played once for England, on the Tour From Hell.
Vickery recovered from a neck injury in April 1999 and played in that year’s Rugby World Cup. A shoulder injury, however, kept him out of the 2000 South Africa tour. Vickery toured Australia with the British & Irish Lions in 2001 and played in all three tests.
Vickery was appointed captain of the England squad that toured Argentina in 2002. With many of the top players rested, Vickery led the side to victory against The Pumas in Buenos Aires.
Vickery missed the
2003 Six Nations
The 2003 Six Nations Championship was the fourth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, and the 109th international championship overall. The annual tournament was won by England, who completed a grand slam, and went on to win the 200 ...
tournament because of a back injury, but having returned to the team he did well for England on the road to the 2003 World Cup. He played in all seven games in the tournament, which was won by England, and captained the side against Uruguay. He scored his first international try when he came off the bench against Samoa in England’s third game of the tournament.
A rib injury prevented him from captaining the non-capped match against the New Zealand Barbarians in December 2003. Although he took a full part in the
2004 Six Nations
The 2004 Six Nations Championship was the fifth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship to be held since the competition expanded in 2000 to include Italy. Overall, this was the 110th series of the international championship.
Match wi ...
, another back operation in May ruled him out of the summer tour to New Zealand and Australia. He returned to rugby only in late October 2004.
Making his international comeback, he came on as a replacement against South Africa for the first Autumn Test between the two sides on 18 November 2006. After playing well, he drove over to score the winning try, which was converted by
Andy Goode
Andrew James Goode (born 3 April 1980) is a sports pundit and retired rugby union player. Goode had an 18-year professional career playing over 400 games and scoring over 4,000 points. He played professionally in England, France and South A ...
, and England won their first game since February that year.
He was selected on 2 January by new England Head Coach Brian Ashton to captain the side during the
2007 Six Nations
The 2007 Six Nations Championship was the eighth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 113th series of the international championship. Fifteen mat ...
and
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...
. He was one of only four players to have started both the 2003 and 2007 RWC Finals, the other three being Jonny Wilkinson, Jason Robinson and Ben Kay.
Also, on 8 January 2008 he was selected in the squad for the
2008 Six Nations Championship
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 ...
by Brian Ashton. He played every game except for the 23–19 win over Italy which he missed through injury. He was selected to tour South Africa with the 2009 British & Irish Lions, starting the first and third test. He took a merciless pounding from Tendai Mtawarira in the first test in particular, probably the worst of his career. To his credit, he performed admirably in the third test when he replaced the injured Adam Jones to start.
2011 Rugby World Cup
The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Af ...