Player Profile

Lenny Woodard has been described as a "cult hero" in Welsh rugby having played for over 30 different sides in his career, most of them in rugby union. Newbridge was his final port of call when he was aged 40. The reason he played for so many sides, most in his 30s, is after he retired, if any club put a call out that they needed players that week, he'd put his name forward. He wasn't quite a dual code international. He was selected for the Wales RU side in 1998 to go on their summer tour to South Africa but was never capped, only playing in two midweek tour matches.

Lenny first played rugby union at Greenlawn Junior and was top scorer in his final year, scoring a hat-trick in county schools cup final at Rodney Parade. He also represented both Pontypool and Gwent schools. He attended West Mon Comprehensive School and was eventually made captain of the first XV. He also gained international honours in hockey for Wales at U15, U16 and U18 level. Whilst at UWIC he was selected for Wales rugby union under-21 for the 5 nations campaign in 1996 but he also started playing rugby league for the college and was selected for Wales Students v England and went on tour with Great Britain Students to France, scoring a try in the test match in a narrow 10-4 win. He had trials for Swinton Lions and Hull FC but each time just played in their reserves. However when with Hull, he was selected to play for Wales men in rugby league for the first time.

By the early 2000s, he was playing both codes in South Wales, breaking records in the 15-man game. In 2003, he scored a club record 7-tries for Pontypool in a 90–3 victory over Treorchy RFC. He scored three more tries against Aberavon RFC in the following game to reach a season tally of 44 tries and earned the accolade of having Pontypool's best try scorer in a season since World War I, surpassing the 39-tries scored by David Bishop in the 1983–84 season, but less than the 55-tries scored by wing Tom Robbins in the 1913–14 season. He has scored over 200 tries in club rugby union through all his clubs. In rugby league, he was selected for Bridgend Blue Bulls for their debut season in 2003 and helped them win both the Welsh Conference and British Conference titles that year. He was also in the sides that won the Welsh and British Finals in 2005 and represented West Wales in 2004-05. In 2006, he played rugby league professionally for Celtic Crusaders, making 10 appearances and scoring four tries. He returned to Bridgend Blue Bulls in 2007 and helped them to another Welsh title.

In 2021, Lenny was diagnosed with the first stages of dementia. He has since joined up with other rugby league and union players to highlight the dangers of head injuries in sport which has helped make the sports safer in recent years.