Will Carling

William David Charles Carling OBE (born 12 December 1965) is a former Rugby union player for Harlequins, and a former captain of England from 1988 to 1996, winning 72 caps. He is often known in rugby union circles as 'bum face', a reference to his cleft chin.

He attended the Sedbergh School in Winder House, on an army scholarship and later graduated with a degree in Psychology from Hatfield College, Durham [http://www.dur.ac.uk/pr.office/922honpal.htm] . After university Carling joined the army and was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Wales. He never rose above the rank of Second Lieutenant and his commission was terminated in 1988.

He played for Harlequins as a centre but was more committed to his England side. This commitment led Carling to resign his commission and concentrate on Rugby as a career despite the sport still being considered amateur.

He was the youngest ever England captain at age 22 and was at the time the most successful ever, seeing them to back-to-back Five Nations grand slam victories (1991, 1992), and the final of the 1991 World Cup. He also led them to a 1995 Grand Slam, a feat that was not to be repeated by another England team until 2003.

Carling's England team were often criticised as boring because they did not score many tries and often relied upon their forwards rather than take risks by giving the ball to the backs. Perhaps it was sensitivity about this that caused a famous reversal of tactics in the 1991 World Cup final, when England suddenly played an expansive game that possibly contributed to their defeat by Australia. Carling offered the explanation that it was due to a previous defeat by Australia where England had been beaten up front.

Despite this, under Carling England started to challenge and beat the established rugby union powers such as New Zealand and Australia, and their success helped to make rugby union a more popular sport in England.

Carling famously described the Rugby Football Union Committee as "57 old farts" which saw him sacked. The incident had been provoked by administrator Dudley Wood's comments about England players' desire to cheat by breaking the amateur ethics. He was however quickly reinstated due to public pressure and following a public apology was able to go to the 1995 World Cup.

Following his resignation from the England captaincy he continued to be selected as an outside centre ahead of Jeremy Guscott.

Carling was formerly married to the television presenter Julia Carling. Prior to their divorce, he was romantically linked by some members of the press with Diana, Princess of Wales, the then wife of Prince Charles.

After the end of his career he became a TV pundit on rugby union.

Carling advertised Quorn food products on British television in the 1990s.

External links

* [http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1521 Sporting Heroes]
* [http://statistics.scrum.com/rugby_stats_05.asp?ID=ECA16 scrum.com statistics]