Charlie Hodgson
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Weight | [undue weight? – discuss] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Bradford Grammar School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| University | University of Durham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Daisy Hartley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Charles Christopher Hodgson (born 12 November 1980 in Halifax, England) is an English rugby union footballer. He plays fly-half for Sale and England. He is engaged to long-term girlfriend Daisy Hartley, who he met at school.
Charlie was educated at Bradford Grammar School. He was a huge Halifax rugby league fan long before he ever played rugby union. A family friend invited him to Old Brodleians rugby club and his first game was for the opposition, as they were short. He has also played for Old Brodleians, Durham University and Yorkshire.
He first played for Sale Sharks against French club Auch in 2000. Sale Sharks is where Hodgson has seen his greatest success in winning the 2005/2006 Guinness Premiership in a dominant victory over Leicester Tigers at Twickenham. He marked his England début with a record breaking 44 point haul against Romania in November 2001, the most by any England player in a test match, when England won 134-0.
He was selected at centre in the 2003 Six Nations. He played 2 games at centre, only to be demoted to the subs bench for the third match against Italy. It was in this game he picked up a serious injury. He made a welcome return to action during the 2003/04 season, after having been sidelined for eight months with a ruptured cruciate ligament in his left knee.[1] The injury had denied him selection for the 2003 World Cup and another injury kept him out of the 2004 Six Nations. He played at fly-half during the 2004 summer tour to the Southern Hemisphere and for all three internationals against New Zealand and Australia in 2004. He was named Man of the Match against Canada.
In recent times he has received a criticism for his inconsistent goal kicking, which was partly responsible for England's disappointing performance in the 2005 Six Nations championship. His supporters cite his all round game as being superior to other English fly-halves such as Jonny Wilkinson, though others see him as a confidence player and believe that he may never reach his full potential at international level.
Hodgson was selected for the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand.
Whilst playing for England against South Africa on 18th November 2006, Hodgson ruptured the cruciate ligament in his right knee.[2]
Charlie married his childhood sweetheart, Daisy Hartley, at Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire on June 23rd, 2007.