Gareth Hock

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Gareth Hock
Personal information
Full name Gareth Charnock
Date of birth September 5, 1983
Place of birth Wigan, England
Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Nickname Gaz
Position Second Row
Professional clubs*
2003-2006
Wigan 85 (18)
National team
2006- Great Britain

* Professional club appearances and (tries)
counted for the domestic league only.

Gareth Hock (born September 5, 1983) is an English rugby league player who currently plays for English club Wigan Warriors in the Super League competition. His primary position is as a second-row forward.

Wigan born Gareth Charnock, changed his name to Gareth Hock after his parents married when he was 9. Under his new name, Gareth went on to make a big impact in the rugby league world.

Wigan signed Gareth, along with future first teamers Luke Robinson and Sean O'Loughlin, at the age of 12. He worked his way up through Wigan's scholarship and Academy systems, playing in the Academy U19s during the 2002 season. However, injury forced him to miss much of the latter part of the year. Despite this, he was included in the 2003 first team squad by head coach Stuart Raper. Gareth made his first team debut that season against Doncaster in the Challenge Cup, scoring two tries after coming on to replace an injured Sean O'Loughlin. He went on to become a first team regular for the rest of the season. Gareth commented later: “Sean O'Loughlin was injured early, which was a lucky break for me,” he said. “It went well, then Faz (Farrell) got injured and I got a few starts. I’ve enjoyed every minute.”

He crowned a magnificent season by being named Super League Young Player of the Year. Gareth signed a new one-year contract with Wigan in June 2004.

Gareth has international experience playing in the Great Britain Academy side that toured Australia in 2001. He was also called up to the England Academy squad to face the Aussie Schoolboys in December 2002. He played in the first Test, scoring a vital try in England's historic victory. He had achieved amateur representative honours, touring with Great Britain U16s and U18s. He has now been included in the England A squad to face the Australians at Brentford on October 28, 2003.

Unfortunately Gareth's playing career took a turn for the worst when he picked up a medial ligament injury against the Bradford Bulls on 25th February 2005. The injury required a full knee reconstruction which kept him side-lined until the end of the 2005 Super League season. Gareth was expected to make his return in the 2006 season but suffered a stress fracture to his shin and had to miss the start of the 2006 season. He was set to make his return from injury on the 14th May 2006 but he required a further operation and is like to miss the entire 2006 Super League season. The 2004 young player of the year, who was tipped to be one of the best second rowers in England, has not played a first team rugby league match in over 2 years.

Gareth made his long awaited return to rugby league in Wigan Warriors' Challenge Cup match against Salford which Wigan lost 16-4, despite being on the losing team Hock made an impressive return. He featured in the next match which was against local rivals St Helens, he was again impressive and scored a try but Wigan lost 14-28. His impressive return has meant that Hock is likely to be included in the Great Britain test squad to take on New Zealand only a month after returning from a 2 year injury.

Wigan Warriors - Current Squad

1 Ashton | 2 Calderwood | 3 Bailey | 4 Withers | 5 Richards | 6 Barrett | 7 Leuluai | 8 Fielden | 9 Higham | 10 Paleaaesina | 11 Hock | 12 Fletcher | 13 O'Loughlin | 14 Vaealiki | 16 Millard | 18 Prescott | 19 Hansen | 20 Goulding | 21 Hill | 22 Tomkins | 23 Colbon | 24 O'Carroll | 25 Mcilorum | 26 Coyle | 27 Gleeson | 28 Flanagan

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