Ben Flower

For the baseball player, see Ben Flowers.
Ben Flower
Personal information
Born (1987-10-19) 19 October 1987
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight 17 st 2 lb (109 kg) [1]
Playing information
Position Prop, Second-row, Loose forward
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2008–11 Crusaders RL 53 3 0 0 12
2010(loan) → South Wales Scorpions 4 1 0 0 4
2012– Wigan Warriors 78 10 0 0 40
Total 135 14 0 0 56
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2008–13 Wales 16 1 0 0 4
As of 22 July 2015
Source: RLP

Ben Flower (born 19 October 1987) is a rugby league player, He plays for Wigan and the Wales national rugby league team. He previously played for Crusaders. He started his career as a Second-row/Loose forward before moving mainly to Prop when he joined Wigan.

Playing career

Early career and Crusaders

An under-17 international when at Cardiff Demons, Flower also played for Wales in rugby union at under 18, under 19 and under 20 level. He was signed by the Crusaders from Welsh Premiership rugby union side Bedwas RFC, having also played for regional side Newport Gwent Dragons.

Flower progressed as a rugby league player throughout 2007, starting in Crusaders Colts before becoming a regular in the Crusaders first team and winning his first full Welsh cap in 2008. He played for Crusaders in their first Super League season in 2009, and remained with the club until their departure from the league in 2011, after which he signed for Wigan Warriors.

In 2010, Flower was loaned from Crusaders to South Wales Scorpions of Championship 1 and made four appearances for the club, scoring one try.

Wigan Warriors

Flower made 18 appearances in his first season with Wigan. In 2013 he established himself as a first-choice player and was a member of the team that won the 2013 Challenge Cup and the 2013 Super League Grand Final.

Lance Hohaia incident

On 11 October 2014 Flower became the first player to be sent off in a Super League Grand Final after being shown a red card in the second minute of the match for twice punching Lance Hohaia of St Helens, once while Hohaia was prone on the ground.[2][3] Wigan went on to lose the match after playing with a man down for 78 minutes.[3] Flower was subsequently given a six-month ban by the RFL disciplinary committee, the longest in the competition's history for an on-field act.[4] Hohaia retired from rugby league on 29 April 2015, citing recurrent concussion symptoms as the reason.[5][6]

International career

Flower made his Wales debut against England while at Celtic Crusaders in 2008.[7]

He represented Wales in the 2010 European Cup and the 2011 Rugby League Four Nations, and was named in the squad for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Crusaders Rugby League". web page. Crusaders Rugby League Club. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
  2. ↑ "Super League Grand Final: St Helens v Wigan Warriors as it happened - BBC Sport". BBC Sport.
  3. 1 2 Andy Wilson. "Wigan's Ben Flower hammered for Super League Grand Final punches". the Guardian.
  4. ↑ "Ben Flower: Wigan prop banned for Lance Hohaia punch". BBC Sport. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "Lance Hohaia retires due to health concerns". SkySports.com. Sky Sports. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  6. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/32525472. Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help);
  7. ↑ "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "Crusaders dominate Wales' squad". BBC. 3 October 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2012.

External links

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