Richard Moriarty


Richard Moriarty is a former international Wales rugby union player. He played on 23 occasions for his country, either as a 2nd row or back row forward scoring 2 tries and captained Wales on 8 occasions.
During his time as Welsh captain, he lost only once, in the semi-finals of the inaugural Rugby World Cup against the eventual winners, New Zealand. However, Wales managed to beat the pre-tournament favourites, Australia, to claim third place and a bronze medal; to this date, the best performance for Wales in a Rugby World Cup. He has been quoted as saying that captaining the Welsh side at the first world cup was the "icing on the cake" for his career.
He has been heavily involved with Swansea RFC throughout his career.
As a player, he holds the club’s all-time record for appearances at 472 in a career spanning over 20 years from 1976/77 to 1997/98 in which he also scored 32 tries. He was club captain for 3 consecutive seasons 1986/87, 1987/88 and 1988/89 and more recently he was the team manager and, since December 2006, he has been on the board of directors.

Personal

Richard Moriarty is the elder brother of fellow Swansea and Wales rugby union and rugby league player Paul Moriarty. Richard's nephew Ross Moriarty is also a professional rugby union player.