Will Rowlands

Will Rowlands read economics and management at Pembroke College, Oxford, and won the Varsity Match twice, in 2012 and 2013, starting at lock in both. Nine years after the second of those he was voted the best player in Welsh rugby.

Note on his current club: Rowlands is still listed in Racing 92‘s squad data. He retired from international rugby in the autumn of 2025 and ended his playing career at the close of the 2025-26 season.

Lock, 2.03m and 125kg, and 34 years old.

Born in Hammersmith to a Welsh father, he went to Rugby School, then Warwick, then Oxford, and came into the Wasps academy alongside his degree. A first senior appearance came in January 2013 and a first Premiership match three years later, after a loan spell in the second tier at Jersey.

He became a starter in 2018-19, finishing tenth in the Premiership for tackles made with 257. Wayne Pivac capped him in January 2020 through his father’s nationality, and he was a Premiership finalist that year and a Six Nations winner the next.

He moved to the Dragons in 2021 specifically to stay eligible for Wales, and it worked. He was named Welsh player of the year in 2022, made co-captain of his region, and played through to the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup.

The Dragons move is the one that defines the international half of the career. Welsh selection rules exclude most players based outside the country, so a 29-year-old established in the Premiership had to take a demotion in club terms to keep a Test place. He then had the best two seasons of his career.

France took him after that tournament. A Top 14 career that lasted three seasons closed a playing life of thirteen years and one Six Nations title.