Ian Watson - Scrum-half
Wales RLHeritage No | 378 |
Date Of Birth | 27/10/1976 |
Place Of Birth | Manchester |
Height | 171 |
Weight | 87 |
Clubs | Swinton Lions, Leigh Leopards, Halifax Panthers, Oldham RLFC, Rochdale Hornets, Salford Red Devils, Widnes Vikings, Workington Town, Eccles & Salford Juniors |
Honours | Wales RL, Wales Nines |
Managed | Huddersfield Giants, Salford Red Devils, Swinton Lions |
Ian Watson captained Wales against Italy in October 2010 in what was his 27th appearance in Wales colours, breaking Jim Sullivan's 71 year old record. He became Wales' 46th test captain and eventually went on to win 30 caps which included matches in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. His final appearance for Wales came during the 2011 Four Nations tournament against New Zealand, and he announced his international retirement shortly after. He also played for Wales in the World Nines in Fiji in 1996. Ian started his professional career with the Salford Reds coming though from local amateur team Eccles RLFC. In July 1996, he joined Workington Town on loan where he played in the Super League for the first time. He returned to the Salford Reds for the 1997's Super League II, making 27 appearances for the club. Following the signings of Martin Crompton and Josh White, despite being a firm club favourite Watson was deemed surplus to requirements, and was sold to Swinton Lions for £15,000. He spent three years there before signing a one-year contract with the Widnes Vikings for the 2001 season. He returned to the Super League a year later, re-joining Salford City Reds on a one-year deal. Following that season, he played out the remainder of his career in the Championship with Rochdale Hornets, Oldham, Swinton Lions, Widnes Vikings, Halifax and Leigh Centurions. He had three spells in total with Swinton, the final one bring from 2010-14 where he made 109 appearances. For most of his final season, he was player-coach, but he left in July 2014 to join Salford as assistant coach. In late 2015, Watson was promoted to interim head coach after Iestyn Harris left the club.He was given the job on a permanent basis for 2016, working alongside Director of Rugby Tim Sheens. He coached the Salford Red Devils to the 2019 Super League Grand Final and 2020 Challenge Cup Final, both ending in defeats. He took over as Huddersfield Giants head coach for the 2021 season.
SEASON | P | W | D | L | TRY | GOALS | DG | PTS | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1994-1995 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
1996 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
1999 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2000 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
2001 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2002 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2003 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
2004 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
2005 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
2006 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2008 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2009 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
2010 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2011 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
TOTAL | 30 | 12 | 0 | 18 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 30 |
Note: The statistics tab shows all of the player’s known appearances for this particular Wales side against international sides or other non-capped recognised first class matches. To see exactly how many full test rugby league caps for Wales (or any other country) that this player has, please click the “Test Summary” tab. Nines individual player records are not shown, please click here for full details about Nines. Please also note that clubs’ current names are used throughout this website, due to the database only being able to feed one name per club (e.g. Wigan will also be known as Wigan Warriors throughout all player profiles).