Richard Moriarty (born 1 May 1957 at

Gorseinon Gorseinon is a town within the City and County of Swansea, Wales, near the Loughor estuary. It was a small village until the late 19th century when it grew around the coal mining and tinplate industries. It is situated in the north west of Swa ...

near

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 ...

) is a Welsh former

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 ...

player. He played 23 matches for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, either as a second row or back row

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, scoring two tries, and captained Wales eight times. During his time as Welsh captain, he lost only once, in the semi-finals of the inaugural

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 ...

against the eventual winners,

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 ...

. Wales beat

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 ...

to claim third place, still the best performance by Wales in a

. He has been quoted as saying that captaining the Welsh side at the first world cup was the "icing on the cake" of his career. He has been heavily involved with

Swansea RFC Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Welsh Premiership. The club play at St Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea and are also known as ''The Whites,'' in reference to their home kit colours. History ...

throughout his career. As a player, he holds the club's all-time record for appearances, 472 in a career spanning over 20 years from 1976–77 to 1997–98 in which he also scored 32 tries. He was club captain for three consecutive seasons 1986–87, 1988–88 and 1988–89. More recently he was the team manager and, since December 2006, he has been on the board of directors.

Personal

Richard Moriarty is the elder brother of fellow

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

player Paul Moriarty. Richard's nephew

Ross Moriarty Ross Moriarty (born 18 April 1994) is an international rugby union player, who currently plays for Dragons RFC and Wales as a flanker. Personal life Moriarty was born in St Helens, Merseyside while his father, former Wales international Paul ...

is also a professional rugby union player.

References

External links

Biography on www.thisissouthwales.co.uk website

Welsh Rugby Union webpage - Rugby World cup 1987

BBC Sport - Rugby World cup 1987

Swansea RFC biography
1957 births Living people Rugby union players from Morriston Rugby union players from Gorseinon Swansea RFC players Wales international rugby union players Wales rugby union captains Welsh people of Irish descent Welsh rugby union players {{Wales-rugbyunion-bio-stub