Rhys Priestland

Club

Cardiff Rugby

Position

Fly-half

Nationality

Wales

Date of birth

1987-01-09

Birthplace

Carmarthen, Wales

Height

183 cm (6 ft 0 in)

Weight

95 kg (14 st 13 lb; 209 lb)

Rhys Priestland (born 9 January 1987) is a Welsh international rugby union player who primarily plays as a fly-half, but is also capable of playing at full-back. He attended Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin in Carmarthen, and he is a fluent Welsh speaker.

Club career
A product of the Scarlets academy, Priestland began his senior rugby career with Scarlets feeder club Carmarthen Quins, making six appearances in the 2005–06 season. In March 2006, he signed a professional development contract with the Scarlets. That summer, former Scarlets fly-half Stephen Jones returned to the region after two seasons in France with Clermont Auvergne, and for the 2006–07 season, Priestland served as the Scarlets' third-choice fly-half behind Jones and Ceiron Thomas.

He has played 91 games for them and scored over 600 points. In the 2010–11 season against USA Perpignan, he scored a try at the end of the first half which the Scarlets won.

In January 2015, it was announced that he would join English club Bath, on a two-year contract at the end of the 2014–15 season.

International career
A member of the Wales under-19 squad that won the Grand Slam in the 2006 Six Nations, Priestland received his first senior call-up in January 2011 as part of a 28-man squad for the 2011 Six Nations Championship, as one of three fly-half options along with Stephen Jones and James Hook. After being an unused replacement for the 26–19 loss to England in the opening match, Priestland made his international debut on 12 February 2011, making a four-minute cameo at full-back in a 24–6 win over Scotland at Murrayfield. He was again named on the bench for Wales' third match against Italy, but did not come on, before being left out of the squad entirely for the final two matches against Ireland and France.

Priestland's good form for the Scarlets in the remainder of the 2010–11 season meant he returned to the Wales set-up for a match against the Barbarians in June 2011, coming on as a late substitute for Stephen Jones as Wales lost 31–28, before being included in a 39-man training squad ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. In his first start for Wales, against England at Twickenham on 6 August 2011, Priestland was initially selected at full-back, but made a last-minute switch to fly-half after Stephen Jones was injured in the warm-up; Priestland kicked two conversions in a 23–19 loss. He again started at fly-half in the return match at the Millennium Stadium on 13 August, scoring two penaltie