Scott Quinnell
Encyclopedia
Scott Quinnell is a former Welsh international
rugby league
and rugby union
player, who was a number 8 for Wales, Llanelli RFC
, the Llanelli Scarlets
and the Lions
. He scored 11 tries for Wales and captained his country on 7 occasions in rugby union.
. His next younger brother Craig Quinnell
plays professional rugby union, as did another brother, Gavin Quinnell
, before losing the sight in one eye after an incident in a 2010 rugby match. The brothers are also nephews of legendary Welsh international Barry John
.
juniors aged 8 and made his debut as an 18-year-old back in 1990 against Penygroes. He went on to represent Llanelli on 146 occasions, scoring 69 tries in the process.
Quinnell first played for Wales as a blindside flanker in a 26-24 defeat against Canada
in 1993. He was part of the 1994 Five nations winning Welsh team and was man of the match as Number 8 in Wales' 24-15 victory over France that year with a try and a breakaway to set up another try.
in 1994, joining Wigan
. He stayed with Wigan for two years during this time he won the league and the Regal Trophy. He also represented Wales in the 1995 Rugby League World Cup
, he says that the toughest game of rugby he ever played was the quarter final against Western Samoa
. Wales went out to England 25-10 in the semi-finals.
in 1996. He was selected for the 1997 Lions tour of South Africa but a double hernia operation forced him to leave the tour.
He came back to his beloved Stradey Park
in 1998. During the 1998-99 season he did no conditioning work at all as he had rheumatoid arthritis in his left knee. For seven years he played through the pain barrier with the condition that seemed likely to end his career.
He was part of a Welsh team that won eight straight games before the 1999 World Cup and then reached the World Cup quarter-finals where they went out 24-9 to the eventual winners Australia. He captained Wales for the first time in a 23-13 defeat by South Africa at the Millennium Stadium. Quinnell played his final game for Wales as a replacement in a 32-21 win over Canada in 2002 after winning 52 caps.
He was again selected for the 2001 Lions tour to Australia
where he played in all three tests, and scored a crucial try in the first test in Brisbane.
Since the Welsh domestic game went regional in 2003, he has appeared 59 times for the Scarlets, scoring 32 tries. He was part of the Llanelli Scarlets team that won the Celtic League
title in 2004.
Quinnell announced his retirement from rugby union at the end of the 2004/2005 season in order to concentrate on his role as coach of the Llanelli RFC Welsh Premier Division
team. A hand injury suffered in March 2005 forced him to end his career a few weeks prematurely. He played his final game in a testimonial match
with fellow retiree Rob Howley
at Millennium Stadium
. Quinnell's Britain & Ireland selection lost 57-67 to Howley's Rest of the World side.
televised rugby matches.
, Warwickshire
, although they have since moved back to South Wales to a smallholding near Usk.
Quinnell was born dyslexic
, but was not diagnosed until his early 30's, when his lack of ability to read and write was correctly diagnosed. Having undertaken a series of therapies to resolve the condition, Quinnell is now a popular speaker on the matter. He has represented the Welsh Dyslexia Project, and also completed an autobiography as part of the Accent Press Quick Reads series.
In August 2007 Quinnell was treated for serious injuries after slipping whilst entering a shower and falling through a glass shower door at his then home near Llanelli. He was taken to West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen
with a severed right triceps and glass embedded in his right arm, hand and knee.
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...
rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
and rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
player, who was a number 8 for Wales, Llanelli RFC
Llanelli RFC
Llanelli Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club founded in 1875 and its senior team is one of the leading club sides in Wales. The club began the 2008-09 season at their historic home ground of Stradey Park in Llanelli, but moved in November 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent...
, the Llanelli Scarlets
Llanelli Scarlets
The Scarlets are one of the four professional Welsh regional rugby union teams. Based in Llanelli, south-west Wales the team play at the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12, as well as competing in the LV= Cup and the Heineken Cup...
and the Lions
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
. He scored 11 tries for Wales and captained his country on 7 occasions in rugby union.
Biography
Scott is the son of former Welsh international Derek QuinnellDerek Quinnell
Derek Leslie Quinnell , won 23 rugby union caps for Wales both as a lock-forward and as a number eight.Educated at Coleshill Secondary Modern School, Llanelli, Derek Quinnell first played for Llanelli RFC in 1967 and made his international debut for Wales against France in 1972...
. His next younger brother Craig Quinnell
Craig Quinnell
Craig Quinnell is a former Welsh Rugby Union player.Quinnell played 54 games for the Cardiff club between November 1999 and May 2002 and established himself as one of the backbones of the pack. Though often in the firing line from opposition forwards, he never took a step backwards and was a firm...
plays professional rugby union, as did another brother, Gavin Quinnell
Gavin Quinnell
Gavin Quinnell is a former Welsh rugby union player. His career was ended as a result of an eye gouge in a Welsh premiership game. He played for several teams in England, Wales and Italy but finished his career with Magners league side Llanelli Scarlets...
, before losing the sight in one eye after an incident in a 2010 rugby match. The brothers are also nephews of legendary Welsh international Barry John
Barry John
Barry John is a former Welsh rugby union fly-half who played, during the amateur era of the sport, in the 1960s and early 1970s. John began his rugby career as a schoolboy playing for his local team Cefneithin RFC before switching to first-class west Wales team Llanelli RFC in 1964...
.
Early career
Quinnell first joined the LlanelliLlanelli RFC
Llanelli Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club founded in 1875 and its senior team is one of the leading club sides in Wales. The club began the 2008-09 season at their historic home ground of Stradey Park in Llanelli, but moved in November 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent...
juniors aged 8 and made his debut as an 18-year-old back in 1990 against Penygroes. He went on to represent Llanelli on 146 occasions, scoring 69 tries in the process.
Quinnell first played for Wales as a blindside flanker in a 26-24 defeat against Canada
Canada national rugby union team
The Canada national rugby union team represents Canada in international rugby union. They are governed by Rugby Canada, and play in red and black. Canada is classified by the International Rugby Board as a tier two rugby nation. There are ten tier one nations, and seven tier two nations, the...
in 1993. He was part of the 1994 Five nations winning Welsh team and was man of the match as Number 8 in Wales' 24-15 victory over France that year with a try and a breakaway to set up another try.
Rugby league
He switched to rugby leagueRugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
in 1994, joining Wigan
Wigan Warriors
Wigan Warriors is an English rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club's first team squad competes in the engage Super League and the team are the current Challenge Cup holders as of the 27th August 2011....
. He stayed with Wigan for two years during this time he won the league and the Regal Trophy. He also represented Wales in the 1995 Rugby League World Cup
1995 Rugby League World Cup
The 1995 Rugby League World Cup was held during October in the United Kingdom. It was the eleventh staging of the Rugby League World Cup and was marketed as the Halifax Centenary World Cup, reflecting the tournament's sponsorship and the fact that 1995 marked the 100th birthday of the sport...
, he says that the toughest game of rugby he ever played was the quarter final against Western Samoa
Samoa national rugby league team
-Notable Players & Coaches:* John Ackland * Steve Kaiser Coach 1990 - 1994* Steve Kaiser 1986* Afi Ah Koui 1986* Andrew Ah Koui 1986* George Apelu 1986* Fa'ausu Afoa circa-1995* Wing Afoa 1990 - 1994* Isaak Ah Mau circa-2006...
. Wales went out to England 25-10 in the semi-finals.
Return to Union
He returned to rugby union with RichmondRichmond F.C.
Richmond Football Club is a rugby union club from Richmond, London. It is a founding member of the Rugby Football Union, and is one of the oldest football clubs...
in 1996. He was selected for the 1997 Lions tour of South Africa but a double hernia operation forced him to leave the tour.
He came back to his beloved Stradey Park
Stradey Park
Stradey Park was a rugby union stadium located near the centre of the town of Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It was the home of the Scarlets region and Llanelli RFC rugby teams. The stadium was a combination of seating and standing with a total capacity of 10,800...
in 1998. During the 1998-99 season he did no conditioning work at all as he had rheumatoid arthritis in his left knee. For seven years he played through the pain barrier with the condition that seemed likely to end his career.
He was part of a Welsh team that won eight straight games before the 1999 World Cup and then reached the World Cup quarter-finals where they went out 24-9 to the eventual winners Australia. He captained Wales for the first time in a 23-13 defeat by South Africa at the Millennium Stadium. Quinnell played his final game for Wales as a replacement in a 32-21 win over Canada in 2002 after winning 52 caps.
He was again selected for the 2001 Lions tour to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
where he played in all three tests, and scored a crucial try in the first test in Brisbane.
Since the Welsh domestic game went regional in 2003, he has appeared 59 times for the Scarlets, scoring 32 tries. He was part of the Llanelli Scarlets team that won the Celtic League
Celtic League (rugby union)
The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....
title in 2004.
Quinnell announced his retirement from rugby union at the end of the 2004/2005 season in order to concentrate on his role as coach of the Llanelli RFC Welsh Premier Division
Welsh Premier Division
The Welsh Premier Division is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented by the Welsh Rugby Union for the 1990–91 season.-Competition history:...
team. A hand injury suffered in March 2005 forced him to end his career a few weeks prematurely. He played his final game in a testimonial match
Testimonial match
A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, notably football and especially in the United Kingdom, where a club puts on a match in honour of a player for service to the club....
with fellow retiree Rob Howley
Rob Howley
Robert Howley is a former Welsh rugby union footballer. He was considered one of the greatest ever scrum-halves and gained 59 caps for Wales, 22 of them as captain.Howley made his Wales debut in February 1996...
at Millennium Stadium
Millennium Stadium
The Millennium Stadium is the national stadium of Wales, located in the capital, Cardiff. It is the home of the Wales national rugby union team and also frequently stages games of the Wales national football team, but is also host to many other large scale events, such as the Super Special Stage...
. Quinnell's Britain & Ireland selection lost 57-67 to Howley's Rest of the World side.
After retirement
Quinnell currently regularly appears as a commentator and pundit on a number of Sky SportsSky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
televised rugby matches.
Personal life
Quinnell is married to Nicola, and the couple have three children. Having lived all of his life in Llanelli, in early 2009 in light of his increased media commitments, the family moved to KenilworthKenilworth
Kenilworth is a town in central Warwickshire, England. In 2001 the town had a population of 22,582 . It is situated south of Coventry, north of Warwick and northwest of London....
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, although they have since moved back to South Wales to a smallholding near Usk.
Quinnell was born dyslexic
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, but was not diagnosed until his early 30's, when his lack of ability to read and write was correctly diagnosed. Having undertaken a series of therapies to resolve the condition, Quinnell is now a popular speaker on the matter. He has represented the Welsh Dyslexia Project, and also completed an autobiography as part of the Accent Press Quick Reads series.
In August 2007 Quinnell was treated for serious injuries after slipping whilst entering a shower and falling through a glass shower door at his then home near Llanelli. He was taken to West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen
Carmarthen
Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....
with a severed right triceps and glass embedded in his right arm, hand and knee.
External links
- Wales profile
- Scott Quinnell Wigan Career Page on the Wigan RL Fansite.