The LA Giltinis signed Harrison Goddard for the 2021 Major League Rugby season. The 22-year-old scrumhalf (23 in April) is 6’0″ and 185 lbs.
Harrison was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and attended Oakhill College. Since rugby performance led to his selection in 2014-2015 for the Australian Schoolboys. In 2015 he also played in the Australian Youth Commonwealth 7s.
Harrison attended Western Sydney University in 2016, pursuing a Bachelor of Business Degree in Sports Management.
He’s played for Randwick Rugby Club since 2016, and in 2016 played for the Greater Sydney Rams in the National Rugby Championship. In 2017 he played for the Melbourne Rebels U20s in the 2017 SuperU20s and led to his representing Australia in the World Rugby U20s Championship in both 2017 and 2018. During 2017-2018 he played for Melbourne Rising and from 2017-2019, the Melbourne Rebels, and the Australia Sevens team in 2018. In 2020 he played on the Shute Shield winning team, Gordon Rugby Club, in which the head coach was Darren Coleman, the current head coach of the LA Giltinis.
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Harrison is linked with coach Darren Coleman at the Gordon club and played a frontline role in the club winning Sydney’s Shute Shield championship for the first time in 22 years. They are now reigniting that successful partnership at the Giltinis is a major plus for the MLR club.
“Darren is very detailed, persistent and communicates really well with players. He’s a big loss to Australian rugby but capable of doing something special this year in the US,” Goddard said. “That’s why I wanted to be on board at the Giltinis.
“It’s a great opportunity to gain more exposure and experience, play plenty of minutes and be part of starting a new club with a lot of international players.
“When I googled ‘Los Angeles’ I also saw the beaches so playing with the sun on my back in one of the sporting capitals of the world is going to be cool.”
Giltinis’ fans will enjoy watching Goddard, a sharp runner of the ball, an accomplished goalkicker, a shrewd tactical kicker and a halfback who controls the play with maturity.
His studies in Youth and Family Welfare give him great satisfaction when helping those in need through a training session or community work.
Now that the Giltinis player announcement frenzy was well under way, Goddard is super excited.
Coleman saw Goddard develop first hand this year and knows the Giltinis have grabbed a big signing.
“Harrison is a highly-talented halfback and I watched him go from strength-to-strength this year with the game time to develop,” Coleman said.
“Two of his greatest attributes are his astute tactical kicking and his incredible composure for one so young because he knows when to speed up the game and when to slow it down.
“He’s a big-minutes player.”
