Stu Townsend (born 11 October 1995) is a scrum-half playing professional rugby union for

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played its home m ...

Premiership Rugby 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 ...

Early life

Born in

Torbay Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ...

, Townsend was first introduced to rugby as a six-year-old at his local club Kingsbridge. He was educated at the local Primary and Community College before attending Ivybridge Community College, where he joined the Exeter Chiefs Academy system.

Early career

Townsend featured for England at various age levels, including that of the Under-20s, and also in the National Leagues with both Taunton Titans and the

Cornish Pirates The Cornish Pirates ( kw, An Vorladron Gernewek) are a professional rugby union team who play in the Championship, the second level of the English rugby union pyramid, and are the premier Cornish rugby club. Formerly known as Penzance & Newlyn ...

Exeter Chiefs

After playing regularly in the Championship Townsend was recalled to the Chiefs squad midway through the 16/17 season after injuries to fellow nines, Dave Lewis and Will Chudley. After a number of appearances off the bench both in the Premiership and Europe, on his first full starting appearance he scored a try against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road. He started the final as Exeter Chiefs defeated

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

to be crowned champions of the 2016-17 English Premiership. He scored a try for Exeter in the second minute of the semi-final against

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

to help book a place in the final of the

Anglo-Welsh 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 ...

for Exeter to be played against Bath Rugby on the 18 March 2018. The final was rearranged to March 30 due to snow and Townsend played as the Chiefs won 28-11.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Stu 1995 births Exeter Chiefs players Living people Rugby union scrum-halves English rugby union players