- Richard Bryan (rugby player)
Richard Bryan (born21st January 1977 inBristol ,Gloucestershire ) is arugby union footballer forLeeds Tykes . His usual position is at theback-row . The Tykes signed Bryan fromNewport Gwent Dragons in May 2006 . He made his Tykes debut againstNottingham R F U on1st October 2006 atMeadow Lane as a replacement in a 37-30 victory."I am very pleased to be joining Leeds after a difficult few months in Wales," said Bryan on joining the club, "This will give me a chance to restart my career and the club share a lot of my ambitions.
"Next year will be a fresh start for the Tykes, with the amount of new players signing for the club and young players being promoted, and that is great for me. You cannot be anything other than very impressed by the set up here at the Tykes.
"The calibre of player we are signing bodes well for next season and trying to get back into the Premiership. I realise I will be one of the more experienced players in the squad but I am looking forward to that challenge, at my last couple of clubs that leadership role is something I have enjoyed."
Bryan began his career with
Bath Rugby before moving on to skipperBridgend . At the Brewery Field he led the club to the lastWelsh Premiership title before the introduction of regional rugby with 13 league wins in 14 games. He also played five times in theHeineken Cup .With the introduction of regional teams he was drafted into the
Celtic Warriors side along with former TykeRichard Parks . He moved to Newport following the demise of the Warriors in 2004 and made 23 appearances in theCeltic League in two seasons. Bryan took over the captaincy duties fromJason Forster .In 2004 Bryan wondered whether he had any future in the game after clutching his knee in agony on the
Rodney Parade pitch after falling awkwardly near the end of a game againstEdinburgh .A cruciate ligament had gone in the knee and a complete reconstruction was required with no certainty about the outcome. Ironically, it was fellow Tyke
Rhys Oakley who replaced him in the Dragons' side.But he recovered and he made a full return to the Newport side. Bryan said at the time: "The injury didn't even come through contact. I just sidestepped at the end of the game, right in the 80th minute, and it just went. I had never felt anything like it, I was in a huge amount of pain and felt pretty desperate.
"When I first did it I didn't realise how long it would be, maybe three or four months, so it was really hard. It was the longest I'd been out injured and it was a struggle watching all the boys playing, it was a case of trying to make the best of a bad job.
"But everyone at the club (Newport) was really good which helped me get through it, and I knew there were other players like
Ben Breeze ,Kevin Morgan andPeter Sidoli who had recovered from the same type of injury."
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