| Full name | Nicholas James Groom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 21 February 1990 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | King William's Town, South Africa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 81 kg (12 st 11 lb; 179 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Rondebosch Boys' High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| University | University of Cape Town | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nicholas James Groom (born 22 February 1990) is a South African rugby union player. He plays as a scrum-half.
A winner of the Varsity Cup with UCT in 2011, Groom received a swift call up to the Stormers side at the tail-end of the Super Rugby season to replace the injured Dewaldt Duvenhage and Ricky Januarie and he made a couple of substitute appearances. The next 18 months were to see him limited to Western Province appearances and he was a Currie Cup winner with the Streeptruie in 2012. 2013 saw the departure of Duvenhage and Groom was now in a one-on-one fight with Louis Schreuder for the Stormers and Province number 9 jersey and as a result he saw much more game time. He was a Currie Cup runner up in 2013 and he largely had to make do with appearances from the substitutes bench as Schreuder stole a march in the battle to be first choice scrum-half. However, he was to become a Currie Cup winner again in 2014, this time against the Golden Lions in a season which had seen him edge ahead of Louis Schreuder both at Super Rugby level where he started 12 of 16 games in a tough campaign and also domestically where he started 7 of 9 games and scored 1 try in the process.
He signed a contract to join English Premiership side Northampton Saints at the end of the 2016 Super Rugby season and has since become a regular started for the Midlands side. [1]
Groom has been a regular feature in the Saints' starting side and was instrumental in them securing European Champions Cup rugby for the 2017/18 season, featuring heavily in both the European Champions Cup play-off games where Saints saw off both Connacht Rugby and Stade Francais to secure their spot in the competition for the following season. [2] On 3 April 2018, it was announced that Groom would leave Northampton with immediate effect to join the Super Rugby team the Lions. [3]
On 27 June 2019, Groom returned to the UK with Pro14 side Edinburgh in Scotland from the 2019–20 season. [4] He was released on 22 April 2021 [5] and subsequently signed for Premiership Rugby team London Irish until the end of the 2020–21 season. [6]
On 28 May 2016, Groom was included in a 31-man South Africa squad for their three-test match series against a touring Ireland team. [7] After training with the national team for a few days, he joined the South Africa 'A' squad for their two-match series against a touring England Saxons team. [8] He was named in the starting line-up for their first match in Bloemfontein, [9] but ended on the losing side as the visitors ran out 32–24 winners. [10]
| Season | Team | Games | Starts | Sub | Mins | Tries | Points |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Stormers | 2 | 0 | 2 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2012 | Stormers | 0 | |||||||
| 2013 | Stormers | 9 | 4 | 5 | 371 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | Stormers | 16 | 12 | 4 | 924 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | Stormers | 16 | 13 | 3 | 955 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| 2016 | Stormers | 14 | 10 | 4 | 765 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | In Europe with Northampton Saints | ||||||||
| 2018 | Lions | 8 | 5 | 3 | 315 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Lions | 13 | 7 | 6 | 579 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 78 | 51 | 27 | 3949 | 8 | 40 | 1 | 0 | |
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