Colin Charvis (born 27 December 1972) is a former captain of the

Wales national rugby union team The Wales national rugby union team ( cy, Tîm rygbi'r undeb cenedlaethol Cymru) represents Wales in men's international rugby union. Its governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played the ...

and also played for the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

. A back row forward, Charvis was equally adept as a flanker or as the no. 8. Charvis became the world record try scorer for a forward in test match rugby on 24 November 2007 v South Africa at the Millennium Stadium,

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

with his 22nd international try. In 2011 he was overtaken by

Takashi Kikutani is a Japanese rugby union player, who plays at number 8 or flanker for Canon Eagles and previously Toyota Verblitz. He also represented Japan at international level, and is the second highest try scorer for a forward of all time. Profession ...

of Japan on the

List of leading rugby union test try scorers This is a list of the leading try scorers in men's 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 r ...

. Charvis has two caps for the British & Irish Lions; both appearances were against Australia in 2001.

Early life

Charvis was born in Sutton Coldfield,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, on 27 December 1972 to Lloyd and Lynne Charvis. Colin began his club career with

London Welsh London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seaso ...

while studying at Polytechnic of Central London. He stayed at the club until 1995, when he moved to

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 T ...

. Charvis is of Jamaican heritage through his father.

1995-2003: Swansea

His first cap for Wales was in 1996 against Australia: he went on to become team captain for a period and toured Australia with the

in 2001. He remained with Swansea until changes in the Welsh club structure saw him without a contract in the period of the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

2003-2007: Tarbes, Newcastle and Newport

Charvis moved briefly to

Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. It is the capital of Bigorre and of the Hautes-Pyrénées. It has been a commune since 1790. It was known as ''Turba ...

in France and then to

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 ...

in England whom he also captained. Charvis's contract with the Falcons was not renewed at the end of the 2005–6 season. He subsequently joined the

Newport Gwent Dragons 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 ...

. He made his debut for the club in August in a pre-season friendly against the Cornish Pirates

International career

Charvis scored 22 tries for his country, making him the leading try scorer among all Welsh forwards (as of 2021). He is also one of only four forwards to score over 100 international points (

John Eales John Eales AM (born 27 June 1970) is an Australian former rugby union player and the most successful captain in the history of Australian rugby. In 1999, he became one of the first players to win multiple Rugby World Cups. Early life Eales ...

Carlo Checchinato Carlo Checchinato (born 30 August 1970 in Adria, Province of Rovigo) is an Italian rugby union former player and is the current team manager for the Italy national team. Checchinato was born in Adria, close to Rovigo. His father, called Gianc ...

and

are the others). He was the second most capped player for Wales and the most capped forward with 94 caps until overtaken by

Martyn Williams Martyn Elwyn Williams, (born 1 September 1975) is a former Wales and British & Irish Lions international rugby union player. A flanker, he was Wales' most-capped forward with 100 caps until surpassed by Gethin Jenkins on 30 November 2013. He ...

13 March 2010. He also featured in the 1999 Rugby World Cup and captained Wales in the

in Australia. In 2000, Charvis was implicated in

Grannygate Grannygate is the name given to several different sporting scandals, typically regarding eligibility of players for national teams. A rugby union version of Grannygate occurred in Wales in March 2000, a rugby league version occurred in New Zealand ...

as he had been first capped for Wales in 1996 while apparently ineligible. However, by the time the scandal broke he had completed the required 3 years residency period and no further action was taken. In 2015, a DNA testing project suggested that Charvis had genuine Welsh ancestry that he did not know about. He appeared in both Tests and following the tour, Charvis was named in Gareth Jenkins' 41-man preliminary Rugby World Cup 2007 summer training squad. He made the final 30-man squad in August after playing in the Test against England and made substitute appearances in both Invesco Perpetual Summer Series matches against Argentina and France. Charvis made a try-scoring substitute appearance in Wales's opening Pool B match against Canada, and made the starting line-ups for the remaining Pool clashes with Australia, Japan and Fiji. In November 2007 Wales caretaker coach Nigel Davies included Charvis in his starting line-up for the inaugural Prince William Cup match with South Africa. Despite the 34–12 defeat to the reigning world champions Charvis scored his 22nd try for his country.

International tries

2008-2010: Player-coach

Charvis was appointed to a player/coach role at

in July 2008. However, because of injuries amongst the playing squad Charvis returned to the team, and as a result of his excellent form he played a number of matches during the 2008–09 season, but then retired as a player in order to be full-time forwards and defence coach. He parted company with the

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 late September 2010.

Post-professional career

Charvis is also one of eight celebrities chosen to participate in an intense week learning Welsh in an eco-friendly chic campsite in Pembrokeshire,

West Wales West Wales ( cy, Gorllewin Cymru) is not clearly defined as a particular region of Wales. Some definitions of West Wales include only Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, which historically comprised the Welsh principality of ''Deheub ...

in the series '' cariad@iaith:love4language'' shown on S4C in July 2011. In 2012, Charvis made a cameo appearance as himself in an episode of the British television comedy drama series '' Stella''. In 2013, Charvis took on the Absa Cape Epic, an eight-day team stage race that traverses the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

region of South Africa. Having ridden over 700 km with 15,000m of vertical climbing, he completed the

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

as an Individual Finisher after his partner withdrew. In 2018, commemorating

Black History Month Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

in the United Kingdom, Charvis was included on a list of 100 "Brilliant, Black and Welsh" people. From 2018 Charvis has owned a carpet shop in Horizon Park, Llansamlet, Swansea.

References

External links

Wales profileNewport Gwent Dragons profileNewcastle Falcons profileProfile at Welsh Rugby Union websiteProfile at Sporting Heroes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charvis, Colin 1972 births Living people Black British sportspeople British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Wales Dragons RFC players English people of Jamaican descent English people of Welsh descent English rugby union players London Welsh RFC players Newcastle Falcons players People educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Sutton Coldfield Swansea RFC players Wales international rugby union players Wales rugby union captains