- Nick De Luca
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Nick De Luca Personal information Full name Nicholas John De Luca Date of birth 1 February 1984 Place of birth Dumfries, Scotland Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Weight 14 st 9 lb (93 kg) University(s) Edinburgh Club information Position(s) Centre / Full-back / Wing Current club Edinburgh Rugby Senior clubs* Years Club Apps (points) 2007-
2006-2007Edinburgh
Border ReiversRepresentative teams** 2008- Scotland 29 (5) * Professional club appearances and points
counted for domestic first grade only.
** Representative team caps and points correct
as of 19 October 2011.Nick De Luca (born 1 February 1984 in Dumfries,[1] south west Scotland) is a Scottish internationalist professional rugby union player. He currently plays club rugby for Edinburgh Rugby in the RaboDirect Pro12.
Contents
Early years
De Luca was born in Dumfries and grew up in Lockerbie.[2]
Club rugby
De Luca's position of choice is as a Centre. He can also operate at Full-back and Wing. In his early career he caught the eye with his notable 'outside breaks', opening up defences and creating chances. His creative play has been noted for deceptive strength, slick handling[2] and quick foot work.[3]
At club level De Luca began as an apprentice with Edinburgh in 2005 before joining Border Reivers for the 2006–07 season. Following the region's dissolution in 2007 he returned to Edinburgh.[4] De Luca's debut season was marked by memorable try against Toulouse in the Heineken Cup where he stood up the famed Yannick Jauzion to touch down, and he also contributed a spellbinding effort during the dramatic win at Ospreys later on that year.[2]
International
De Luca was a member of the Scotland A squads for the 2006 and 2007 Churchill Cup tournaments in Canada and England respectively.[4] A former Scotland Sevens internationalist, De Luca is the joint all-time leading try scorer for the Scotland under-21 team. He shares this honour with Ben Cairns.[2]
Having already represented Scotland at all age-grade levels as well as 'A' level,[4] De Luca was called up to the Scotland squad for the 2008 Six Nations Championship.[5][6] He made his debut for Scotland against France in the first game of the 2008 Six Nations Championship. De Luca held on to his position for the following game against Wales.[4] He had a difficult introduction to international rugby as he struggled throughout the 2008 RBS 6 Nations as part of an under-used and ineffective Scottish backline from which he has done well to recover.[3]
De Luca was part of the Scotland team that recorded a historic series victory in Argentina in June 2010, starting at outside centre in the first test victory in Tucuman.[2]
His first international try was on 19 March 2011 in the 2011 Six Nations Championship match against Italy at Murrayfield, the first Scotland try at the stadium since November 2009.
De Luca started for Scotland in the 2011 Rugby World Cup games against Georgia and Argentina. He displaced Joe Ansbro who had started in the first game for Scotland against Romania. In the next game, a decider against England, De Luca joined the game as a second half substitute for the injured Max Evans.
Away from rugby
Dumfries-born De Luca applauded the heroics of his local football team Queen of the South reaching the 2008 Scottish Cup Final against the odds after recording a shock 4–3 semi final win over Aberdeen. De Luca said: “Although I’m not a big football fan, it was really pleasing to see Queen of the South reach the Scottish Cup Final: that type of result is what sport is all about."[7]
References
- ^ Official RBS 6 Nations Rugby : De Luca eyes Edinburgh opportunity
- ^ a b c d e Nick de Luca profile on Edinburgh Rugby
- ^ a b Nick de Luca RBS 6 Nations profile
- ^ a b c d Nick de Luca Profile on ESPN
- ^ "Scots call up for in-form quartet". BBC. 2007-12-04. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/7127413.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ^ "Murray left out of Scotland squad". BBC. 2008-01-08. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/scottish/7175027.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ^ icDumfries – De Luca hopes for return to the pitch
External links
Scotland squad – 2011 Rugby World Cup Forwards Backs Ansbro · Blair · Cusiter · Danielli · De Luca · Evans · Jackson · Lamont, R. · Lamont, S. · Lawson, R. · Morrison · Parks · PatersonCoach Edinburgh Rugby squad Forwards Backs Coach Michael Bradley • Tom SmithCategories:- 1984 births
- Living people
- Scottish rugby union players
- Scottish people of Italian descent
- People from Dumfries
- Edinburgh Rugby players
- Italian British rugby union players
- Scotland international rugby union players
- Border Reivers players
- Italian Scottish rugby union players
- Sportspeople from Dumfries
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