Liam Wright

Liam Wright is an Australian professional rugby union player currently captaining the Queensland Reds in the Super Rugby Pacific competition.

Born in Durban, Wright spent plenty of time dreaming of wearing the green and gold – but it was initially South Africa, rather than Australia where his allegiance lay.

Wright spent his formative years in South Africa and Zimbabwe – the homeland of his father – and headed to Australia with his parents Lee and Glynn and younger sister when he was just seven.

While his early allegiance had been to the Springboks, he quickly became a Reds fan, something that became entrenched when he was a boarder at Brisbane’s Anglican Church Grammar School.

He was 13 when the Reds won the Super Rugby title and while he wasn’t at Suncorp Stadium for the final, the telecast of the match was a major event at a boarding house filled with rugby-mad teens including some of the school’s famed 2014 premiership team which he was part of – a side that also contained future rugby league stars Kalyn Ponga and Brodie Croft and rugby’s Mack Mason and Angus Scott-Young.

Wright began his career playing Queensland Premier Rugby in 2016 with the East Tigers. In the same year, Wright joined the Queensland Country U20s team where he made his debut at the Australian National Rugby Championships and claimed the national title. This led him to win selection in the Australian U20s for the Junior World Cup in Manchester.

2017 was truly a remarkable year as he celebrated an undefeated national title with the Queensland U20s, selection to a second Junior World Cup, Player of the Year honours for the Australian U20s, a National Rugby Championship title with Queensland Country, and an outing for Australia against the Barbarians.

Wright went on to sign a two-year professional contract with the Queensland Reds and at the end of 2017 was chosen as one of two development players in the Wallabies Spring Tour squad for the end-of[1]year rugby union internationals.

The backrower made his Super Rugby debut in the opening round of the 2018 season and in 2019, went on to finish runner-up in the Pilecki Medal count in just his second season for the Reds where he was the only Queenslander to start every match.

Wright was later selected for the Australian national squad for the Bledisloe Cup in 2019, before making his Wallabies debut against New Zealand at Eden Park in August that year and has earnt five caps for Australia.

In 2020 and with the support of all his teammates, Wright was handed the Queensland Reds’ captaincy before leading the team to victory in the 2021 Super Rugby Australia competition alongside co-captain James O’Connor.

In 2022, Wright re-signed with the Reds until the end of 2024. In an innovative two-year deal, the contract will see the backrower available to play overseas during the Super Rugby Pacific off-season pending selection for the Wallabies.

Lian talks about

• Team Building
• Resilience
• Motivation
• Strategy