With Olly Barkley moving onto pastures new, recently signing for London Welsh, it’ll be interesting to see him settle down and showcase the talent the rugby world knows he has.
Barkley began his career at Bath in 2001 making over 150 appearances until he first left in 2008. Joining as a 19 year old, he toured with England in 2001 in North America without having made a senior appearance for Bath. However that appearance soon came, and so did his first try against Gran Rugby in 2002.
His breakthrough in the England setup came in 2004. He was the reserve fly half for much of the Six Nations, but had to step up to the plate when Clive Woodward handed him the starting jersey. With an injury to the first choice, Grayson gave him this opportunity, but nonetheless Barkley took it well, putting in solid performances. This subsequently led to Barkley being in the touring party to the southern hemisphere in 2004 against Australia and New Zealand. He was a regular starter in the 2005 Six Nations, but injury ruled him out the next year. Barkley’s performance against the Barbarians led him to making the touring party to Australia that year; he was also part of the 2007 World Cup squad.
Barkley has however had some controversy; he was arrested in Newquay in 2006 after a man suffered a broken jaw, however he was released without charge.
As previously stated he left bath to join Gloucester in 2008, but after being a regular for Gloucester that season he made the move back to Bath as the club was “where his heart is”. The move back saw him break his leg for the first of two occasions, this time in the pre-season of 2009. He recovered to come back that year and put together a solid season. However, 2010/11 saw more injury agony for Barkley – this time a double leg break in a collision with team mate Butch James against Gloucester.
To Bath’s, and almost everyone’s, surprise, in 2012 it was announced Barkley had been signed on a short term medical joker contract with Racing Metro. His French adventure began, thus seeing his England career come to an end.
He went on to make a handful of appearances for Racing, and then joined Grenoble in 2013. The move looked promising, with Barkley being one of the stars of the side. However it didn’t quite work out and in January of 2014 he left with immediate effect due to “rugby differences”
He returned to join Scarlets until the end of the 2014 season, starting regularly and he looks to have found his feet again.
Aside from rugby, Barkley has other interests. He has contributed to the magazine “Blokely”, is a patron for the NACOA and most recently has set up a business which provides rugby camps for children, called Elektrik3 (more info can be found at www.elektrik3.com).
Now, as previously stated, he has recently joined London Welsh. He will compete with Tristan Roberts for the ten jersey, and fans cannot wait to see him play Premiership rugby again. With all of their signings, London Welsh are looking eager to build on their status in the Premiership, and hopefully under Justin Burnell he will be given the opportunities to show the Barkley of old. He is one of the few for whom the French revoloution didn’t work out, and seems to have got a bit lost going from club to club, but this season will be a new leaf for him.
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