Sam "Rat" Cordingley (born 20 March 1976 in Sydney, New South Wales) is a former Australian

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 ...

footballer and member of the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

. Before retirement he played for 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 ...

. He was educated at the St Patrick's Marist College, Dundas.

Career

He played junior rugby for Dundas Valley. He also played for the

Eastwood Rugby Club Eastwood Rugby is a rugby union club playing in the Sydney Premier Rugby competition. The Eastwood District extends from the Parramatta River at Meadowbank to the Hawkesbury River at Wisemans Ferry. The Club currently plays at TG Millner Field ...

in Sydney, and made his debut for Queensland against Auckland in 1999. Cordingley made his Super 12 debut for the Queensland Reds that season in a match against the

Wellington Hurricanes The Hurricanes ( ; formerly the Wellington Hurricanes) is a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Wellington that competes in Super Rugby. The Hurricanes were formed to represent the lower North Island, including the East Coast, H ...

. The following season he was called up to the Wallabies squad and made his debut against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. He went back at the Reds after three seasons in Europe with Welsh side Swansea and Grenoble of France. After playing for the Reds in 2006, he was selected for the Wallabies squad. For the European winter season 2008–09, he returned to

FC Grenoble The Football Club de Grenoble Rugby (FCG) is a French rugby union club based in Grenoble and founded in 1892. FCG was champion of France in 1954 and runner-up in 1918 and in 1993 during a controversial final, being deprived of the title of champ ...

, in the French

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 ...

. The

signed Cordingley as a foundation member of their Super Rugby franchise 3 April 2010. However, he missed several games early in 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 ...

due to a hip injury.

After retirement

Cordingley remained with the Rebels after the 2011 season. In

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, he was 'Player Recruitment Manager', first point of contact for prospective Rebels players, and continued as 'list manager' in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

. Early in 2014 Cordingley became General Manager of Rugby Operations at QRU.

References

External links

Rebels Media Unit news release, 17 February, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cordingley, Sam 1976 births Australia international rugby union players Australian rugby union players Brothers Old Boys players ACT Brumbies players Living people Melbourne Rebels players Queensland Reds players FC Grenoble players Rugby union scrum-halves Rugby union players from Sydney Expatriate rugby union players in France Expatriate rugby union players in Wales Swansea RFC players