Stephen Moore (rugby player)
Encyclopedia
Stephen Moore is an Australian rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 footballer. Born in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

 to Irish parents, Stephen and his family moved back to Tuam
Tuam
Tuam is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The name is pronounced choo-um . It is situated west of the midlands of Ireland, and north of Galway city.-History:...

, Galway, Ireland in the mid-eighties before they emigrated to Mount Morgan, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia in 1988. His family later moved to Rockhampton
Rockhampton, Queensland
Rockhampton is a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia. The city lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately from the river mouth, and some north of the state capital, Brisbane....

, before finally settling in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

.

Career

Stephen came up through the coaching set-up in Queensland, playing schools rugby with Rockhampton Pioneers and Brisbane Grammar school prior to joining the University of Queensland Rugby Club from where he represented the Australian Under 19's side. He made his Super 12 debut in 2003 for the Queensland Reds
Queensland Reds
The Queensland Reds represent Queensland in the sport of rugby union in the Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996 they were a representative team selected on merit from the rugby union club competitions in Queensland...

 against the Bulls
Bulls (rugby franchise)
The Bulls, for sponsorship reasons known as the Vodacom Bulls, are a South African rugby union team competing in the Super Rugby competition. They are based in Pretoria and play their home matches at Loftus Versfeld...

. He then went on to play for the under-21 Australian team at the 2003 and 2004 under-21 world championships, as well as with the Australia A
Australia A rugby union team
Australia A are a national representative rugby union team of Australian rugby union. They are a second tier team to the national side, the Wallabies. Australia 'A' matches are usually used as a stepping stone up to Wallaby selection. The team often plays at smaller venues than the Wallabies, and...

 team. In 2005 he rejected offers to play in the Celtic League
Celtic League (rugby union)
The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

 in Ireland, although he has many fa.
He was included in the 2005 Wallabies squad for the mid-year Tests. He debuted with Rocky Elsom
Rocky Elsom
Rocky Elsom is a former captain of the Australia national rugby union team. Raised in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Elsom is one of Australia's most decorated Rugby players. Elsom has played over 50 times for Australia and has over 80 Super rugby caps with the Waratahs 2003–08 and the...

 against Samoa. He came off the bench in matches against Samoa, Italy and France. He was then capped three times against South Africa. In November he joined the Wallabies in France when fellow hooker Adam Freier
Adam Freier
Adam Freier is a rugby union footballer. He most recently played for the New South Wales Waratahs in the international Super 14 competition. His usual position is at hooker...

 sustained an injury. He played in the loss against France on November 5.After the whirlwind of 2005 where Stephen made his debut for the Wallabies and featured in every Queensland Reds Super 12 game, 2006 was a mixed bag which saw him finish the season on the reserves bench. However, his skills and strength as a ball runner brought an extra dimension to the Reds forwards and earned him selection on the Wallabies end of year tour to Europe.
n November 2006, Stephen travelled to Europe for the Autumn Internationals series. He was used as a replacement in the Australia v Italy game (25-18) in the Stadio Flaminio
Stadio Flaminio
The Stadio Flaminio is a stadium in Rome. It lies along the Via Flaminia, three kilometres northwest of the city centre, 300 metres away from the Parco di Villa Glori....

, Rome. He then played for the Australia 'A' squad that defeated Ireland 'A' mid-week in Thomond Park
Thomond Park
Thomond Park is a stadium located in Limerick in the Irish province of Munster. The stadium is owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union and count Munster Rugby, Shannon RFC and UL Bohemian RFC as tenants. The capacity of the stadium is 26,500 following its large scale redevelopment in...

, Limerick. He then came on as a replacement in the 54th minute of the Ireland
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...

 vs Australia game, in which Ireland ran out easy winners 21-6, in appalling conditions at Lansdowne Road
Lansdowne Road
Lansdowne Road was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union that has been the location of a number of sports stadiums. It was used primarily for rugby union and for association football matches as well as some music concerts...

 stadium, Dublin. He made his first full International appearance for Australia the following weekend against Scotland at Murrayfield stadium
Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...

 in Edinburgh, touching down a pass from Matt Giteau
Matt Giteau
Matthew Giteau is an Australian rugby union footballer, a former international who now plays for the French Top 14 side Toulon. He attended St Edmund's College, Canberra, which has produced other Wallabies including George Gregan, Matt Henjak and the former rugby league star and now coach Ricky...

 to score his first International try. Australia were easy victors with a scoreline of Australia 44 - Scotland 15.

On the 8th September 2007, Stephen made his Rugby World Cup debut against Japan, which saw the Wallabies comprehensively win 91-3. They then qualified for the quarter finals by topping pool B with three further wins over Wales, Fiji and Canada.On the 6th October, England defeated Australia 12-10 in the first IRB Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....

 quarter-final at Stade Velodrome
Stade Vélodrome
The Stade Vélodrome is a football stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1, and was a venue in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2007 Rugby World Cup. It is the largest club-football ground in France, with a capacity of 60,031 spectators,...

, Marseille putting an end to the Wallabies World Cup dreams.

In 2008, Stephen was a permanent fixture in the Australian front row, joining fly half Matt Giteau
Matt Giteau
Matthew Giteau is an Australian rugby union footballer, a former international who now plays for the French Top 14 side Toulon. He attended St Edmund's College, Canberra, which has produced other Wallabies including George Gregan, Matt Henjak and the former rugby league star and now coach Ricky...

 as the only player to appear in all 14 Tests played by the Wallabies during a record breaking year. Stephen had an excellent Spring Tour in Europe, starting every game, firmly establishing himself as first choice Wallabies Hooker.The win over France saw Moore cross for his second try in the green and gold of the Wallabies. He also won the coveted ‘Man of the Match’ during Australia’s Cook Cup defeat of England at Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...

 on 15 November.

In early 2009, Stephen switched teams from Brisbane to Canberra, advancing beyond 50 Super Rugby caps during his maiden season with the Brumbies; for whom he featured in 12 of the 13 matches. Stephen re-signed for the Australian Rugby Union until after the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He scored a try against the Barbarians in the non-cap match that kicked off the domestic Test season and went on to feature in eight of the nine Tests which Australia played.

In 2010, Moore appears in all 13 matches for the Brumbies until breaking his jaw in the final round of regular season.

Stephen still has a large family based in Ireland, which includes Cousins Siobhan Byrne, an International Fencer who represented Ireland at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and Patrick O’Rourke, who plays All Ireland Gaelic Football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...

 for Meath. Stephen also retains his Irish family’s love of horse racing; and dreamed of being a jockey as a child, eventually surrendering the idea in his early teens when it became apparent that his body would not be suited to such a pastime. The affable front rower is also a passionate fan of Liverpool Football Club and dreams of one day watching his beloved Reds in action live at Anfield
Anfield
Anfield is an association football stadium in the district of Anfield, Liverpool, England, with a seating capacity of 45,522. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892 and was originally the home of Everton F.C. from 1884 to 1892, before they moved to Goodison Park...

.

Stephen, who cites Irish hooker Keith Wood
Keith Wood
Keith Gerard Mallinson Wood and educated at St Munchin's College, Limerick is a former international rugby union footballer who played hooker for Ireland, the Lions, Garryowen, Harlequins and Munster....

 as his rugby role-model, completed a Science Degree at the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...

 in 2006 and has a view of studying post-graduate medicine following in the footsteps of father Tommy who is a GP on Brisbane's southside.

External links

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