Peter Charles Richards (born 10 March 1978) is a former English rugby union player. A versatile player, he has played in three positions: scrum half (his preferred role), fly-half and centre. Richards retired in the summer of 2010 because of a back injury. As of May 2015, Richards became head coach at London Scottish.[citation needed]
Richards moved to Lord Wandsworth College, Hampshire for sixth form and played alongside Jonny Wilkinson reaching the Daily Mail Semi-final in 1996. He featured in both the England U16 and U18 Group Schools teams before joining London Irish in 1996.
Richards has represented England at U19, U21 and A level.
He was part of the England "Tour of Hell" in 1998 to Australia and New Zealand when he played against the New Zealand Māori.[7] He angered head coach Clive Woodward by going to nightclubs in Sydney and Auckland, which had a detrimental result on his performance during training sessions.[8] He came home before the final leg to South Africa, and Woodward never called him up to the squad again while he was coach.[8]
In 2004 he was part of the winning England team at the Hong Kong Sevens.[9]
This decision paid off when he was named in Andy Robinson's 2005 Autumn test squad, though he did not feature in any of the games.[10]
Richards was included in England's 2006 Tour of Australia and won his first Test cap against the Wallabies in a game which Australia beat England 34–3.[11] Richards won his second cap in the second game of the tour in which the Wallabies triumphed again in a 43–18 victory.[12]
He took part in the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, coming on as a replacement in the Final, and other games.[13]
On 19 May 2010, Richards announced his retirement from rugby due to injury, saying "I've had a great career and thoroughly enjoyed my rugby wherever I've played. I would like to have continued on for another couple of seasons, unfortunately that is not going to be physically possible. I would like to thank all the players, coaches and management and supporters at all the clubs I've played with for their help, friendship and encouragement."[15]
