Colin Grzanna

Colin Grzanna is a German international rugby union player, playing for the Berliner RC in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team. He is captain and player-coach of his club team and has also captained the German team at times.

Colin Grzanna
Birth nameColin Grzanna
Date of birth (1979-11-05) 5 November 1979
Place of birthBerlin, Germany
Height1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight96 kg (15 st 2 lb)
UniversityCharite Universitätsmedizin
Occupation(s)Surgeon
Rugby union career
Position(s) Centre
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
1984–99
2000
2001–present		 Berliner RC
Northwood Crusaders
Berliner RC		 ()
National team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
– 2009 Germany 26
Correct as of 25 February 2010
National sevens team(s)
Years Team Comps
Germany 7's
Teams coached
Years Team
Berliner RC

Biography

Colin Grzanna started playing rugby when he was five years old, in 1984, playing with his South African cousins.

He is currently playing for Berliner Rugby Club, where he also covers a coaching role, together with Gerrit van Look, another player of the German national team.

Although playing for Berlin for the most part of his career, Grzanna spent the 2000 season with the Northwood Crusaders in Durban, South Africa before returning to Berlin again.

He was part of the German Sevens side at the World Games 2005 in Duisburg, where Germany finished 8th.[1]

He filled in as German captain for an injured Jens Schmidt in late 2007 and early 2008. Himself injured later in the year, suffering a broken hand and requiring pins after the game against SC Neuenheim on 13 September 2008,[2] he planned to retire from the national team but, according to his captain Schmidt, he loves the game too much and Germany needs his skills too badly for him to retire.[3]

His greatest success as a national team player was the promotion to Division 1 of the European Nations Cup in 2008. In an interview after the promotion-winning game, which he captained, he stated that, in his opinion, this was the greatest moment in German rugby in almost 30 years.[4]

Grzanna voiced his anger with the image of the game in Germany, where it is often unfairly associated with only being played by rough individuals. He considers it the perfect game, as – he says – there is a position for everybody in the game, regardless of someone's size or height.[5]

Grzanna last played for Germany on 2 May 2009, against Russia, and has since retired from the national team.

Personal life

Like most of his fellow German team mates, Grzanna is an amateur rugby player and a surgeon by profession. He studied human medicine at the Charite Universitätsmedizin in Berlin from 2000 to 2007 and now works as a consultant surgeon. Apart from German, he is also fluent in English and French.[6]

Honours

National team

Stats

Colin Grzanna's personal statistics in club and international rugby:[7]

Club
Year Club Division Games Tries Con Pen DG Place
2008–09 Berliner RC Rugby-Bundesliga 10 6 2 1 3 4th – Semi-finals
2009–10 11 13 11 8 0 6th
2010–11 9 2 6 4 1 6th
2011–12 3 2 7 2 2 9th
  • As of 30 April 2012

European Nations Cup
Year Team Competition Games Points Place
2006–2008 Germany European Nations Cup Second Division 8 18 Champions
2008–2010 Germany European Nations Cup First Division 4 0 6th – Relegated

Friendlies & other competitions
Year Team Competition Games Points
2007 Germany Friendly 2 0
  • As of 25 February 2010

References
  1. Rugby: Fiji assure gold medal in final seconds Archived 27 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine World Games website, accessed: 27 January 2009
  2. Favorit unter Druck Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in German) Der Tagesspiegel – Match report, accessed: 27 January 2009
  3. Härte, Herzblut, Hoffnung (in German) Frankfurter Allgemeine – Article on Jens Schmidt, accessed: 27 January 2009
  4. German champagne on ice Archived 30 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine IRB website – Interview with Colin Grzanna, published: 1 May 2008, accessed: 27 January 2009
  5. Rugby-Bundesliga: Berliner RC mit hohen Zielen Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in German) Der Tagesspiegel, accessed: 27 January 2009
  6. Colin Grzanna profile accessed: 27 January 2009
  7. Colin Grzanna profile at totalrugby.de (in German) accessed: 25 February 2010
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