Ross Moriarty (born 18 April 1994) is an international

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, who currently plays for

Dragons RFC Dragons RFC ( cy, Dreigiau) are one of the four professional rugby union regional teams in Wales. They are owned by the Welsh Rugby Union and play their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport and at other grounds around the region. They play in ...

and

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 ...

as a flanker.

Personal life

Moriarty was born in St Helens,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

while his father, former Wales international Paul Moriarty, was in the north of England playing

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 ...

. Moriarty is also the nephew of former Wales international captain

Richard Moriarty Richard Moriarty (born 1 May 1957 at Gorseinon near Swansea) is a Welsh former rugby union player. He played 23 matches for Wales, either as a second row or back row forward, scoring two tries, and captained Wales eight times. During his time a ...

. He was educated at Glyncollen Primary School and Morriston Comprehensive School 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 ...

, Wales. He took up rugby union at the age of ten playing for Swansea Schools and West Wales Schools. He also played his junior rugby at Gorseinon RFC

Club career

Moriarty made his debut for Gloucester on 10 November 2012 against the Ospreys, his age-grade team in the

LV= Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

. He did not play for Gloucester regularly in his first season however, but was a regular with Hartpury RFC, where he was a student. On 27 November 2017, Moriarty decided to leave Gloucester to join Welsh region

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

on a two-year WRU central contract from the 2018-19 season.

International career

England

Moriarty made his international debut with England Under-18 against France at Fylde in February 2012. He went on to score tries against Scotland and Wales in his first four appearances, and helped England to become European champions in Spain. He started the first two games for England in the 2013 under-20 Six Nations but was unavailable for the final three matches after being red carded in the match against Ireland in

Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...

. He played in every match of the

2013 IRB Junior World Championship The 2013 IRB Junior World Championship was the sixth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in France by rugby's governing body, the IRB. A total of twelve nations played in the tournament ...

and scored three tries against the US in a pool game. In the

2014 IRB Junior World Championship The 2014 IRB Junior World Championship was the seventh annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in Auckland, New Zealand by rugby's governing body, World Rugby, then known as the Internation ...

Moriarty won the tournament with England with impressive performances throughout the whole tournament.

Wales

Moriarty made his full international debut in the starting line up for Wales versus Ireland on 8 August 2015. On 15 September 2015, Moriarty was chosen as a replacement for

Eli Walker Eli Walker (born 28 March 1992) is a Welsh retired international rugby union player who played for the Ospreys as a winger. He previously played for Swansea. Career Walker first broke into the Ospreys team during the 2011–12 Pro12 season, st ...

in the

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

squad after Walker suffered an injury. Moriarty came off the bench against Ireland in the opening match of the 2022

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

to earn his 50th cap in the 29-7 loss.

International tries

References

External links

Gloucester Rugby profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moriarty, Ross 1994 births Living people British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Wales Dragons RFC players category:English people of Welsh descent English rugby union players Gloucester Rugby players Rugby union players from Morriston Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Rugby union players from St Helens, Merseyside Wales international rugby union players Welsh rugby union players Hartpury University R.F.C. players