Andrew Farley
Andrew Bruce Farley is a professional rugby union player who has represented Queensland Reds, Otago Rugby, L'Aquila Rugby, Swansea RFC, Connacht Rugby and currently FC Grenoble where he is Team Manager.
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| Birth name | Andrew Bruce Farley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 21 August 1980 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Brisbane, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 198 cm (6 ft 6 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 112 kg (247 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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He was born in Brisbane, Australia on 21 August 1980, to English born father Terence and New Zealand born mother Christine. He started playing rugby at 10 years of age at Marist College Ashgrove. His rugby career commenced when he was selected in the Queensland and Australian Schoolboys. The following year, 1998 he gained selection in the inaugural Reds Rugby College (Junior Queensland Reds). This led him to be selected in Queensland under 19 and 21 which led to the Australia under 19 team who played the curtain raiser the 1999 Bledisloe Cup at Stadium Australia which had a record crowd of over 100,000.
Early Career
The following season he travelled to Italy to play for L'Aquila Rugby coached by former All Black Michael Brewer. After being there for a half season he returned to Australia to once again play for Queensland under 21, and after playing a successful National Championship he was selected in the Australian under 21 World Cup team who finished runner up to the Junior All Blacks in Sydney. He then travelled to Otago where he was a member of the 2001 NPC development squad where he was coached by Laurie Mains. After the NPC with Otago he returned to Australia to join the Queensland Reds receiving 2 caps that season. Following his two caps, former Reds, Bath and Australian Wallabies coach John Connelly contacted him with a suggestion of returning to the northern hemisphere, this time to play for Swansea RFC. After the season with the Queensland Reds he first lined up against Munster in the 5th round of the Celtic League. Swansea starting XV was his home for the 2002-03 season. After the merging of Welsh clubs at the end of 2002-03 season he was presented with an opportunity to join the Irish province Connacht Connacht Rugby.
Connacht Rugby
During his time at Connacht Rugby, he captained the side for 3 seasons and played over 100 Celtic League games. He also made over 50 appearances in the European Challenge Cup and Heineken Cup collectively.
The highlight of his time with Connacht was captaining his side against the Springboks in a 2007 world cup warm up game where the Connacht team showed a lot a pride and resilience in an 18 - 3 loss to the eventual world cup winners.
While playing in Ireland for Connacht Rugby, he gained Irish residency and was selected to play for Ireland A in the 2007 Barclays Churchill Cup which was hosted at Exeter Chiefs' Sandy Park for group matches against Canada & New Zealand Maori and the Finals at Twickenham Stadiumwhere he played against Scotland 'A'.
FC Grenoble
After 6 seasons at Connacht Rugby, Andrew's career turned over a new page and saw him signing in the 09/10 season for French Rugby Pro D2 Club FC Grenoble. After only one season with FC Grenoble he was named captain and lead them to 2nd place in the 2010/11 Pro D2 Championship. In 2011 he signed a new 2-year contract with the club taking him through to the end of the 2012/13 season. In the first year of his new contract he guided FC Grenoble to Champions of France Pro D2 and taking FC Grenoble back to Top 14 for the first time since 2006. For the following 2 years FC Grenoble successfully retained their position in Top 14 under his captaincy until his retirement in 2014.
Honours
Ireland A
While playing in Ireland for Connacht Rugby, he gained Irish residency and was selected to play for Ireland A in the 2007 Barclays Churchill Cup which was hosted at Exeter Chiefs' Sandy Park for group matches against Canada & New Zealand Maori and the Finals at Twickenham Stadium where Ireland beat Scotland 'A' in the Plate Final.
Other
In season 2015/2016 Andrew was inducted into the Conancht Rugby Supporters Club (Connacht Clan) Hall of Fame.
Post Playing Career
In June 2014, Andrew retired from professional rugby at the age of 34. He immediately took on the role of Team Manager (Manager Sportif) at FC Grenoble where he remains in position to this day. Since then FC Grenoble have remained in Top 14.
Alongside this role Andrew Farley works as a project manager for Custom Sensors and Technologies (CST).