Birth name | Brent John Cockbain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 15 November 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 122 kg (19 st 3 lb; 269 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Innisfail High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notable relative(s) | Matt Cockbain (brother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Brent John Cockbain (born 15 November 1974 in New South Wales, Australia) is a former rugby union player who won 24 caps for Wales.
Although born in Australia, and with his brother Matt Cockbain having played international rugby for Australia, Brent decided to emigrate to the UK. Cockbain played club rugby for London Irish, then came to Wales in 1999 to join Pontypridd RFC. With the advent of regional sides in 2003, he played for the Celtic Warriors, then when the Warriors were shut down signed for the Ospreys in 2004.
In the 2004–05 season he helped the Ospreys win the Celtic League and Wales win the Grand Slam, scoring his first and only international try against Italy.
Cockbain returned from injury to club rugby with the Ospreys, but missed Wales' 2006 Autumn Internationals due to an injury. On 3 December 2007, Cockbain signed for the English Premiership side Sale Sharks on a 2½ year contract. [1] [2]
Cockbain retired from competitive sport in June 2010.
Cockbain represented Australia at Under 19 and Under 21 level, but qualified for Wales under the residency rule and made his debut against Romania at Wrexham on 27 August 2003, a match which Wales won 54–8. This match also saw Mike Ruddock take charge of the side for the first time, albeit only for the one game. He went on to start in four of Wales' matches in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In the 2004–05 season he helped Wales win the Grand Slam, scoring his first international try against Italy. He was flown out to join the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand as a late replacement after Danny Grewcock had been banned for biting. [3]
The Celtic Warriors were a rugby union team from Wales, who played in the 2003–04 Celtic League and the 2003–04 Heineken Cup following the introduction of regional rugby union teams in Wales. They were effectively a temporary merger of Pontypridd RFC and Bridgend RFC. The Celtic Warriors played just one season before disbanding.
The Ospreys, formerly the Neath–Swansea Ospreys is one of the four professional rugby union teams from Wales. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team formed as a result of Neath RFC and Swansea RFC combining to create a new merged entity, as part of the new regional structure of Welsh rugby, that began in 2003. They are also affiliated with a number of local semi-professional and amateur clubs, including Welsh Premier Division sides Aberavon RFC, Bridgend Ravens, and original founding clubs Neath and Swansea. The regional area represented by the team has widely become known for rugby purposes as 'Ospreylia'.
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