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Colin Charvis (born December 27, 1972) is a English former captain of the Wales national rugby union team and also played for the British and Irish lions. 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 with his 22nd international try.

Charvis has 2 caps for the British and Irish Lions; both appearances were against Australia in 2001. Further representative honours include Wales Students, Wales U21 and Wales A.

Early life

Charvis was born in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. on December 27, 1972 to Lloyd and Lynne Charvis. Lloyd is now living in Kansas City, Missouri and is a successful painter there. He began his club career with London Welsh while studying at Polytechnic of Central London. He stayed at the club until 1995, when he moved to Swansea RFC.^[1]

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 British and Irish Lions in 2001.

Charvis in action against England

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.

2003-2007: Tarbes, Newcastle and Newport Gwent Dragons

Charvis moved briefly to Tarbes in France and then to Newcastle Falcons 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. He made his debut for the club in August in a pre-season friendly against the Cornish Pirates

He was the victim of alleged racial abuse on February 16, 2007, while playing in Ulster.

Wales

Charvis has scored 22 tries for his country, making him the leading try scorer among all Welsh forwards. He was the second most capped player for Wales and the most capped forward with 94 caps until overtaken by Martyn Williams 13 March 2010. He also featured in the 1999 Rugby World Cup and captained Wales in the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

After appearances against England, Scotland, Ireland and Italy in the 2006 RBS Six Nations Charvis had a spell away from the international scene. However, his blistering form for the Dragons throughout the 2006–2007 season saw him named in Gareth Jenkins's touring squad to Australia in May 2007.

He appeared in both Tests and following the tour, Charvis was named in Gareth Jenkins's 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 clash with South Africa. Despite the 34-12 defeat to the reigning world champions Charvis scored his 22nd try for his country in the clash, becoming the world's top forward try-scorer to date.

2008-present: Player-coach

Charvis was appointed to a player/coach role at Newport Gwent Dragons in July 2008. However, Due to injuries amongst the playing squad Charvis returned to the team and due to his excellent form he played a number of matches during the 2008-09 season.

References

External links

• Wales profile
• Newport Gwent Dragons profile
• Newcastle Falcons profile
• Profile at Welsh Rugby Union website
• Profile at Sporting Heroes