Will Carling

For those of a similar name, see William Carlin (disambiguation).

Will Carling

Full name	William David Charles Carling
Date of birth	12 December 1965 (1965-12-12)
Place of birth	Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	90 kg (14 st 2 lb)
School	Sedbergh School
University	Hatfield College, Durham
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Centre
Professional / senior clubs
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
	Harlequins
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1988–1997 1993	England British Lions	72	(54)

William David Charles Carling, OBE (born 12 December 1965) is a former Rugby union player for Harlequins, and a former captain of England from 1988 to 1996, winning 72 caps.

Early life

The son of Lt Col Bill Carling and his first wife, Will attended the Sedbergh School in Winder House, on an army scholarship and later graduated with a degree in Psychology from Hatfield College, Durham. After university, Carling joined the army and was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Wales. He never rose above the rank of Second Lieutenant and his commission was terminated in 1988.

Rugby career

In 1987 he resigned his army commission in order to concentrate on rugby as a career, and then joined Harlequins and assumed his normal position as centre.

In 1988 he became the youngest ever England captain at the age of 22yrs, and was the most successful, until Martin Johnson's period. During his time he led England to back-to-back Five Nations grand slam victories (1991, 1992), amassing 5 tries from outside centre, as well as 1 more in the 92 tournament at fly half where he played in the absence of the injured Rob Andrew.. Whilst possibly the one of world's best centres at the time, he and his team went on to the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup. He also led them to a 1995 Grand Slam, a feat that was not to be repeated by another England team until 2003.

Carling's England team was often criticised as boring because they did not score many tries and often relied upon their forwards rather than take risks by giving the ball to the backs. Perhaps it was sensitivity about this that caused a famous reversal of tactics in the 1991 Rugby World Cup Final, when England suddenly played an expansive game that possibly contributed to their defeat by Australia. Carling offered the explanation that it was due to a previous defeat by Australia where England had been beaten up front.

Despite this, under Carling England started to challenge and beat the established rugby union powers such as New Zealand and Australia, and their success helped to make rugby union a more popular sport in England.

Carling famously described the Rugby Football Union general committee as "57 old farts" which led to his sacking as captain. The incident had been provoked by administrator Dudley Wood's comments about England players' desire to cheat by breaking the amateur ethics. He was however quickly reinstated due to public pressure and following a public apology was able to go to the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Following his resignation from the England captaincy he continued to be selected as an outside centre with Jeremy Guscott.

Life after rugby

After his rugby career ended he became a TV pundit on rugby union. He has also worked as a motivational speaker and in 2001 founded Will Carling Management Ltd, a corporate hospitality company which is also involved in the rugby social networking website "Rucku".

Wallaby George Gregan equalled his 59 matches as captain in the 2007 Rugby World Cup - Pool B against Fiji and in the 2009 Tri Nations Series Springbok John Smit equalled and then beat his record in tests between New Zealand in Bloemfontein and Durban respectively.

Personal life

Carling is married to his second wife Lisa, the ex-wife of David Cooke. The couple have two children, and the family live in Hampshire. Carling has an older son with former partner Ali Cockayne.

Carling was formerly married to the television presenter Julia Carling. Prior to their divorce, he was romantically linked by some members of the press with Diana, Princess of Wales, the then wife of Prince Charles. Carling has denied any such relationship.

Carling, whose mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was an infant and later died from the disease, is a patron of the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Matches as captain

Matches	Date	Opposition	Venue	Score	Status	Notes
1	1988-11-05	Australia	Twickenham, London	28–19	Test Match
2	1989-02-04	Scotland	Twickenham, London	12–12	1989 Five Nations
3	1989-02-18	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	16–3
4	1989-03-04	France	Twickenham, London	11–0		1 Try
5	1989-03-18	Wales	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff	9–12
6	1989-11-04	Fiji	Twickenham, London	58–23	Test Match
7	1990-01-20	Ireland	Twickenham, London	23–0	1990 Five Nations
8	1990-02-03	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	26–7		1 Try
9	1990-02-17	Wales	Twickenham, London	34–6		1 Try
10	1990-03-17	Scotland	Murrayfield, Edinburgh	7–13
11	1990-07-28	Argentina	Vélez Sársfield, Buenos Aires	25–12	Argentina Series
12	1990-08-04	Argentina	Vélez Sársfield, Buenos Aires	13–15
13	1990-11-03	Argentina	Twickenham, London	51–0	Test Match
14	1991-01-19	Wales	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff	25–6	1991 Five Nations
15	1991-02-16	Scotland	Twickenham, London	21–12
16	1991-03-02	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	16–7
17	1991-03-16	France	Twickenham, London	21–19
18	1991-07-20	Fiji	National Stadium, Suva	28–12	Test Match
19	1991-07-27	Australia	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	15-40	Test Match
20	1991-10-03	New Zealand	Twickenham, London	12–16	1991 Rugby World Cup
21	1991-10-08	Italy	Twickenham, London	36–6
22	1991-10-11	United States	Twickenham, London	37–9		1 Try
23	1991-10-19	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	19–10		1 Try
24	1991-10-26	Scotland	Murrayfield, Edinburgh	9–6
25	1991-11-02	Australia	Twickenham, London	6–12	1991 Rugby World Cup Final
26	1992-01-18	Scotland	Murrayfield, Edinburgh	25–7	1992 Five Nations
27	1992-02-01	Ireland	Twickenham, London	38–9
28	1992-02-15	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	31–13
29	1992-03-07	Wales	Twickenham, London	24–0		1 Try
30	1992-10-17	Canada	Wembley Stadium, London	26–13	Test Match
31	1992-11-14	South Africa	Twickenham, London	33–16	Test Match	1 Try
32	1993-01-16	France	Twickenham, London	16–15	1993 Five Nations
33	1993-02-09	Wales	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff	9–10
34	1993-03-06	Scotland	Twickenham, London	26–12
35	1993-03-20	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	3–17
36	1993-11-27	New Zealand	Twickenham, London	15–9	Test Match
37	1994-02-05	Scotland	Murrayfield, Edinburgh	15–14	1994 Five Nations
38	1994-02-19	Ireland	Twickenham, London	12–13
39	1994-03-05	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	18–14
40	1994-03-19	Wales	Twickenham, London	15–8
41	1994-06-04	South Africa	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria	32–15	South Africa Series
42	1994-06-11	South Africa	Newlands, Cape Town	9–27
43	1994-11-12	Romania	Twickenham, London	54–3	Test Match	1 Try
44	1994-12-10	Canada	Twickenham, London	60–9	Test Match
45	1995-01-21	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	20–8	1995 Five Nations	1 Try
46	1995-02-04	France	Twickenham, London	31–10
47	1995-02-18	Wales	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff	23–9
48	1995-03-18	Scotland	Twickenham, London	24–12
49	1995-05-27	Argentina	Kings Park Stadium, Durban	24–18	1995 Rugby World Cup
50	1995-06-04	Western Samoa	Kings Park Stadium, Durban	44–22
51	1995-06-11	Australia	Newlands, Cape Town	25–22
52	1995-06-18	New Zealand	Newlands, Cape Town	29–45		2 Tries
53	1995-06-22	France	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria	9–19
54	1995-11-18	South Africa	Twickenham, London	14–24	Test Match
55	1995-12-16	Western Samoa	Twickenham, London	27–9	Test Match
56	1996-01-20	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	12–15	1996 Five Nations
57	1996-02-03	Wales	Twickenham, London	21–15
58	1996-03-02	Scotland	Murrayfield, Edinburgh	18–9
59	1996-03-16	Ireland	Twickenham, London	28–15

Honours as captain

Rugby World Cup

• Runner-up: 1991

Five Nations Championship

• Champions: 1991 (Grand Slam and Triple Crown), 1992 (Grand Slam and Triple Crown), 1995 (Grand Slam and Triple Crown), 1996 (Triple Crown)
• Runners-up: 1989, 1990, 1994

Calcutta Cup

• Winners: 1989, 1991–96
• Runners-up: 1990

Millennium Trophy

• Winners: 1989–92, 1995–96
• Runners-up: 1993–94

External links

• Sporting Heroes [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
• Lions profile
• Englands forgotten hero - bbc.co.uk

Sporting positions
Preceded by Richard Harding Rob Andrew Rob Andrew	English National Rugby Union Captain Nov 1988-Mar 1989 Nov 1989-May 1995 Jun 1995-Mar 1996	Succeeded by Rob Andrew Rob Andrew Phil de Glanville