Graham Rowntree

Who is Graham Rowntree?

Graham Christopher Rowntree is a former English rugby union player. He played loosehead prop for Leicester Tigers and England. He was capped 54 times for England, despite having to compete for his position with the world's second most capped player, Jason Leonard.

Rowntree was born in Stockton-on-Tees. He was educated at John Cleveland College, Hinckley, Leicestershire, which has also produced other rugby union players.

In 1988 he joined Leicester Tigers from Nuneaton and made his first-team debut against Oxford University in 1990. For much of that time he was in harness with the famous ‘ABC club’ alongside Richard Cockerill and Darren Garforth.

In 1993 he made his England A, Barbarians and Midlands debuts, and on 18 March 1995 he gained his first full England cap against Scotland in the Five Nations tournament as a temporary replacement for Jason Leonard. He subsequently played in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He also made the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa, playing 6 games and the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

After the 1999 World Cup Graham was not capped for almost 2 years until a series of fine performances for his club forced him back into international contention. He was prominent throughout the pre-2003 Rugby World Cup years. He was selected for the England squad to tour Canada and the US in 2001, participated in all that season's Autumn internationals — being named as man of the match in England's 21–15 Cook Cup victory over Australia — and started in each of the 2002 Six Nations games. He started in England's 15–13 win over New Zealand in Wellington in 2003 and put in a particularly memorable performance against the All Blacks when England's pack was reduced to just 6 men. Despite playing in the 2003 pre-World Cup trial match in France, Rowntree was omitted from Clive Woodward's squad, which won the tournament. Clive Woodward admitted that leaving Rowntree behind was one of the hardest decisions he had to make in his time as England head coach.