Richard Kelly (born 10 September 1987) is a retired Welsh rugby union player who played as a lock for the

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

and the Scarlets in the Pro14. He was appointed as the Ospreys' transition coach in September 2022.

Rugby career

Kelly was born in

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

, and played for both Mumbles and Dunvant before signing for Swansea RFC in 2007. He made his debut for the

regional side in May 2009 playing the last 6 minutes of the Celtic League match against

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 ...

, this would be his only league appearance for the

. Over the next three season Kelly continued to play for

making a further 5 appearances for the

, all in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, before joining the Scarlets in the summer of 2012. Kelly got a broken arm in a Champions Cup game against

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

in October 2014. Unfortunately, he failed to recover properly from this injury, and he announced his retirement in September 2014. He has also spent time working as a forwards coach at

Carmarthen Quins Carmarthen Quins Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cwins Caerfyrddin) are one of two Welsh rugby union clubs based in Carmarthen in West Wales, the other being Carmarthen Athletic. They currently play in the Welsh Premier Division and are a f ...

and have also been part of the academy coaching staff at the Scarlets for a couple of years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Richard 1987 births Rugby union players from Swansea Living people Scarlets players Rugby union articles needing photographs Swansea RFC players Ospreys (rugby union) players Dunvant RFC players