Nathan Sharpe

Nathan Sharpe

Personal information
Full name	Nathan Sharpe
Date of birth	26 February 1978 (1978-02-26) (age 33)
Place of birth	Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Height	2.00 m (6 ft 6 1⁄2 in)
Weight	115 kg (254 lb; 18 st 2 lb)
School(s) attended	The Southport School
Club information
Position(s)	Lock
Current club	Western Force
Youth representative teams
1996 1997	Australia U-19 Australia U-21
Super Rugby
Provincial sides
Super Rugby
1999-2005 2006-	Queensland Reds Western Force	71 (30) 62 (5)
Representative teams
2002-	Australia	100 (35)

Nathan Sharpe (born 26 February 1978 in Wagga Wagga) is an Australian rugby union player. He plays lock and is the captain of the Western Force.

Career

Early career

Sharpe was raised in the Riverina city of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales and his first sporting love was Australian rules football.^[1] He started playing rugby union upon moving to the Gold Coast, Queensland. At schoolboy level, he representated The Southport School first XV and first VIII Rowing Team in 1994 and 1995 as well as being the schools School Captain.^[2] During 1996, Sharpe played for the under-19 Australian rugby union team. The following year he went on to play for the under-21s national side.

Super 14 and the Wallabies

In 2002 he was voted as the Australian Rugby Medal for Excellence which, the award which is voted for by players from all the Australian Super 12 teams (then, Queensland Reds, New South Wales Waratahs and the ACT Brumbies). That same year, Sharpe made his debut for the Wallabies against France.

In 2003, he was voted Super 12 Player of the Year by The Australian newspaper. He went on to play in all seven games of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, which included the loss against England in the final.

He captained the Australian team in the Bledisloe Cup match against the All Blacks in Wellington in July 2004 in the absence of George Gregan.

In 2005, he was named on the bench of the Wallaby Team of the Decade. That year, he also made a high profile move to the Western Force, the new Super 14 franchise that would be competing in the new 2006 Super 14 season. He finished his career at the Queensland Reds with 71 games. Sharpe became the inaugural captain of the Force.

On 21st October 2011, Sharpe received his 100th test cap while playing in the bronze final against Wales in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

References

1. ^ Fuller, Mark (22 June 2003). "Sharpe tipped for greatness". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/21/1056119520990.html. Retrieved 21 October 2011. 
2. ^ "Nathan Sharpe". Emirates Western Force – Players. RugbyWA. http://www.rugbywa.com.au/players/nathan_sharpe,30159.html. Retrieved 2007-09-17. 

External links

• Western Force profile
• Wallabies profile
• Nathan Sharpe on RugbyWA.com
• Nathan Sharpe on RUPA.com.au

Persondata
Name	Sharpe, Nathan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	26 February 1978
Place of birth	Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Date of death
Place of death