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| Born | Jeffrey Alan Probyn (1956-04-27)27 April 1956 (age 69) Bethnal Green,London, England | ||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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Jeff Probyn (born 27 April 1956 inBethnal Green,London) is anEnglish formerRugby Union player.
The Old Albanian,Streatham and Wasps prop was selected in England's squad for the1987 Rugby World Cup, but Probyn did not make his international debut until 1988, at the age of 31, againstFrance. Probyn played in the 1991 Rugby World Cup where along withBrian Moore andJason Leonard he was part of a destructive English front row as they reached the final, losing a tight match 12–6 to Australia at Twickenham.Along withStuart Barnes,Wade Dooley,Mike Teague,Peter Winterbottom andJon Webb, Probyn wore the England shirt for the last time in a 17–3 defeat byIreland atLansdowne Road in 1993. In total, he won 37 caps for England and scored 3 tries.In addition, Probyn touredSouth Africa with a World XV in 1989, played for the Lions against France in 1989 and was a member of theWasps FC side that won theEnglish Courage league in 1990.
Probyn was fairly slight for a modern internationalprop, and a good part of his effectiveness can be explained by his unusual physique: his bony shoulders sloped at a sharp angle, he was short in stature and his hips were widely set. In addition, he was able to scrum exceptionally low, making it hard for taller opponents to get any purchase on him at scrum time.
Due to Probyn's scrummaging techniques some players took to cutting off the sleeves of their shirts as they believed this was how Jeff managed to get so low down in the scrum and would use the sleeves as leverage. After Probyn continued to keep the scrum incredibly low, it was evident that their sleeve cutting was unnecessary.
After retirement from playing, Probyn was a member ofClub England, the Rugby Football Union Committee. He was the manager of the England U21 team from 1994 to 1997 during which time he introduced Clive Woodward and Andy Robinson as coaches to representative rugby. After managing the U21 teams tour of Australia, where they played as a warm up for the first ever Cooke cup game between England and Australia, he returned to the RFU council and sat on the Club England group that elected Woodward as England coach. He sat on the 2006 review that saw the replacement of England's World Cup winning coaches with the team, led by Martin Johnson.
After leaving the RFU, Probyn was critical of cross-code transfers, such as that ofAndy Farrell.[1]
He also formed The Front Row Union Club F.R.U.C with fellow international front-row forwards Brian Moore andPaul Rendall.
Probyn is an Honorary President ofWooden Spoon, the charity of British and Irish rugby.
Probyn is also a regular onTalksport as their expert on Full Contact.Probyn is also a regular columnist in The Rugby Paper.
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