Peter Charles Richards (born 10 March 1978) is a former English

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 ...

player. A versatile player, he has played in three positions: scrum half (his preferred role),

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

and

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

. Richards retired in the summer of 2010 because of a back injury. As of May 2015, Richards became head coach at London Scottish.

Early life

Born 10 March 1978 in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, Richards began playing

mini rugby Mini rugby, also known as New Image Rugby, is a form of rugby union designed to introduce the sport to children. It uses a smaller ball and pitch than standard rugby, and has eight to ten players a side. Invented in England in 1970, mini rugby was ...

at Farnham Rugby Club, before he went to the

Royal Hospital School ) , established = 1694 Royal Charter1712 Greenwich1933 Holbrook , type = Public School Independent day and boarding School Royal Foundation , founders = William III and Mary II , head = Simon Lockyer , head_labe ...

, near Ipswich.

Early career

Richards moved to

Lord Wandsworth College Lord Wandsworth College (LWC) is a co-educational independent school in Long Sutton, Hampshire, England, for day and boarding pupils between the ages of 11–18, which occupies a 1,200 acre campus and is known for its charitable foundation. It ...

, Hampshire for sixth form and played alongside

Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, CBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scoring the w ...

reaching the Daily Mail Semi-final in 1996. He featured in both the England U16 and U18 Group Schools teams before joining

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

in 1996.

Club career

Richards quickly made his first team debut for London Irish against Leicester Tigers before joining Harlequins for the 1999–2000 season. He left two years later and spent a year in Italy playing for Benetton Treviso, then returned to join

Bristol Shoguns Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

. He moved again, to

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. ...

at the start of the 2003–04 season, when the Shoguns were relegated from the

Zurich Premiership 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 ...

. He was a replacement when Wasps won both the 2003–04 Premiership Final and the 2004 Heineken Cup Final. In summer 2005, Richards moved to

Gloucester Rugby Gloucester Rugby are a professional rugby union club based in the West Country city of Gloucester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby, as well as in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The club was formed in ...

to replace Andy Gomarsall. He re-signed with

at the start of the 2007–08 season.

International career

Richards has represented England at U19, U21 and A level. He was part of the England "Tour of Hell" in 1998 to Australia and New Zealand when he played against the New Zealand Māori. He angered head coach Clive Woodward by going to nightclubs in Sydney and Auckland, which had a detrimental result on his performance during training sessions. He came home before the final leg to South Africa, and Woodward never called him up to the squad again while he was coach. In 2004 he was part of the winning England team at the

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens () is an rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competition, the Hong Kong Sevens is currently the s ...

. This decision paid off when he was named in

Andy Robinson Richard Andrew Robinson OBE (born 3 April 1964) is an English rugby union coach and retired player. He was the director of rugby at Bristol until November 2016. He is the former head coach of Scotland and England. From September 2019 to Dec ...

's 2005 Autumn test squad, though he did not feature in any of the games. Richards was included in England's 2006 Tour of Australia and won his first Test

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

against the Wallabies in a game which Australia beat England 34–3. Richards won his second cap in the second game of the tour in which the Wallabies triumphed again in a 43–18 victory. He took part in the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, coming on as a replacement in the Final, and other games. He was picked for the

2008 Six Nations Championship The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, the 114th series of the international championship. Fifteen ...

but was then ruled out of the whole tournament after tearing a biceps muscle while playing for

against Benetton Treviso. On 19 May 2010, Richards announced his retirement from rugby due to injury, saying "I've had a great career and thoroughly enjoyed my rugby wherever I've played. I would like to have continued on for another couple of seasons, unfortunately that is not going to be physically possible. I would like to thank all the players, coaches and management and supporters at all the clubs I've played with for their help, friendship and encouragement."

References

External links

London Irish profileEngland profileGloucester profileWasps profilePeter Richards photo by sportingheroes.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Peter 1978 births Living people Bristol Bears players England international rugby union players English rugby union players Gloucester Rugby players Harlequin F.C. players London Irish players People educated at Lord Wandsworth College People educated at the Royal Hospital School Rugby union players from Portsmouth Rugby union scrum-halves Wasps RFC players 2007 Rugby World Cup players