Pat Richards

Pat Richards

Player information
Full name	Patrick Richards
birthday	February 27, 1982
place of birth	Sydney , New South Wales , Australia
size	1.92 m
society
society	West Tigers
position	Outside three quarters, goalkeeper, inside three quarters
Clubs as active
Years	society	Games (points)
2000–2003 2004–2005 2006–2013 2014–2015 2016-	Parramatta Eels Wests Tigers Wigan Warriors Wests Tigers Dragons Catalans	37 (64) 39 (104) 224 (2462) 43 (342)
National team
Years	National team	Games (points)
2008-2013 2011-2013	Ireland exiles	7 (34) 2 (6)
As of September 13, 2015

Pat Richards (born February 27, 1982 in Sydney ) is an Australian rugby league player of Irish descent. He plays in the Super League for the Dragons Catalans .

Richards began his career in the NRL with the Parramatta Eels . He then moved to the Wests Tigers , with whom he won the NRL in 2005. After winning the NRL with the Tigers, he moved to the Super League for the Wigan Warriors , for whom he played for the next eight seasons. With them he won the Super League in 2010 and 2013 and the Challenge Cup in 2011 and 2013 . During that time he also won the Man of Steel Award and the Albert Goldthorpe Medal . After 2013 he moved back to the Wests Tigers before being signed by the Dragons Catalans after the 2015 season.

Career

Richards was born in Liverpool, part of Greater Western Sydney, to Irish parents. He attended St Therese Primary School and Westfields Sports High School and played rugby for a junior club from Cabramatta, a south-western suburb of Sydney.

Australia

Richards played for the Parramatta Eels from 2000 . When the Eels made it to the NRL Grand Final in 2001, however, he was unable to take part due to a broken leg. After the end of the 2003 season, he moved to the Wests Tigers .

In 2005 he put 20 attempts for the Tigers, which was a club record and made it with them in the NRL Grand Final against the North Queensland Cowboys , in which he participated despite an ankle injury. The Tigers won the game 30:16, where he put one try.

England

In June 2005, Richards signed a two-year deal with the Wigan Warriors . Richards had the advantage that because of his Irish passport he is not counted as an overseas player and is therefore not subject to a regulation that states that a Super League team may have a maximum of 5 overseas players in its squad.

Although he usually played as the outside three-quarters, he initially played as the inside three-quarters, for which Wigan's coach Ian Millward has been heavily criticized. He completed 25 games in which he put 12 attempts and kicked 12 raises and penalties. After the end of the 2006 season, the outer three-quarter Brett Dallas retired, which allowed Richards to return to his usual position as the outer three-quarters. He also became the first kicker for raises and penalties after kickers Michael Dobson , Danny Orr and Wayne Godwin Wigan left after the end of the 2006 season. Although he had never played as a standard kicker before, he quickly found his way into this role. He completed 27 games in which he put 14 attempts, kicked 103 kicks and was voted Man of the Match four times . However, he moved to the position of goalkeeper halfway through the season as Michael Withers ended his career.

On September 21, 2007, the Warriors met the Bradford Bulls in the first elimination playoff . After the Warriors were back 6:30 in between, they started a chase that ended with a drop goal from Richards, which led to the final score of 31:30.

In 2008 he made 19 attempts and scored a total of 307 points, making him the Super League player with the most points for the second time in a row. He also renewed his contract with the Warriors for three years.

In October 2008 he took part in the Rugby League World Cup with Ireland . In Ireland's 34:16 win over Samoa , he made three attempts and scored a total of 22 of the 34 points. In 2009 he took part in the European Cup with Ireland .

Richards became the first Australian player to score more than 1000 points for the Warriors. On February 27, 2010, he put five attempts in a game against the Dragons Catalans and kicked 9 kicks, which was a record for a Wigan player in the Super League with 38 points in one game.

On September 3, 2010, Richards scored 14 points in a game against the Bradford Bulls , breaking Andrew Farrell's record of 388 points in one season. He scored 462 points throughout the season and won the Man of Steel Award on September 27, 2010 . He also won the Albert Goldthorpe Medal with Sam Tomkins and on October 2nd with Wigan the Super League Grand Final against St Helens with 22:10.

The start of the 2011 season was delayed for Richards due to an Achilles tendon injury that he sustained in the 2010 Grand Final. His first game was in Round 9 against the Dragons Catalans . On June 10th he took part with the Exiles in an International Origin game against England . On August 27, Wigan won the Challenge Cup final against the Leeds Rhinos 28:18, with Richards kicking four raises.

On April 26, 2013, he signed a two-year contract with the Wests Tigers . In his final season with the Warriors, he won the Super League Grand Final, in which he put one try, and the Challenge Cup final, in which he kicked two raises and two penalties.

Return to Australia

He scored 12 points in his first game for the Tigers. In his second game he put two tries and kicked 7 kicks. He finished the season as the player with the most tries and points.

In 2015, he completed his 100th NRL game in round 5, in which he put a try. In total, he scored 77 points in the first eight rounds (8 attempts, 22 raises / penalties and a drop goal). After the end of the season, he was in third place both in the list of players with the most attempts and in the list of players with the most points.

In July 2015 it was announced that Richards would join the Dragons Catalans , with whom he had signed a two-year deal, after the end of the season .

Web links

• Player profile on wigan.rlfans.com
• Player profile on nrl.com
• Statistics on rugbyleagueproject.org

Individual evidence

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7. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ [7]
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