Tom Court Rugby player
Tom Court (born 6 November 1980) is a rugby union footballer. He plays for London Irish as a tighthead and loosehead prop. He primarily played at tighthead in his early career at Ulster but switched to loosehead in the 2007/2008 season when BJ Botha arrived at Ulster.Court was born in Brisbane, Australia and began his sporting career as a shotputter. He was Australian University Champion for three years running and had Olympic trials in 2002. He started playing rugby in 2004 and has represented Queensland Reds and Manawatu as well as Ulster. In an interview with the Ulster Rugby Website, Court intimated that he had begun playing rugby in order to lose weight.Court represented the Ireland A side at the 2006 Churchill Cup only 16 months after first playing rugby union, before he had played his first game for Ulster. He qualifies to play international rugby for Ireland through his grandparents - his grandfather, Patrick Carey, was born in County Limerick. He was also named in the 2008 Churchill Cup squad and appeared as a substitute in all three games; against USA, England Saxons and a representative Argentina XV. He made his full Ireland debut in an uncapped match against The Barbarians at Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester.Court was named as a replacement for all Ireland's matches of the 2009 RBS 6 Nations and earned his first cap as a replacement for Marcus Horan during Ireland's 38–9 victory over Italy on 15 February 2009.Court was named as part of Ireland's Rugby World Cup Squad in 2011, and played in the Irish 15-6 victory over Australia (17 Sep 2011), coming on as a substitute against the country of his birth.Tom Court made another appearance as a substitute, coming on in Ireland's final game of the 2012 Six Nations against England.On 23 June 2013, Court was called up by the British and Irish Lions for their tour of Australia to act as cover for Alex Corbisiero.On the 27th of January 2014, it was announced that Tom Court has been signed by London Irish on a 3 year contract with the club, joining from the start of the 2014/15 Season.