A fourth-generation Tiger, Sam Vesty passed 100 starts for his hometown club during 2008/09 and picked up the Players’ Player of the Year award after breaking back into the side in the second half of the campaign.
Now in his eighth season as a first-teamer, Sam was included in the Tigers 22 for all seven finals in the last three seasons, starting both Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup Finals in May 2009 at fly-half.
After going to the 2006 Churchill Cup with England Saxons, his 2009 form earned his first senior call-up for the summer Tests against Argentina where he gained two caps as a replacement.
Vesty has passed the Tigers appearance records of his father Phil, grandfather Bernard Vesty and great-grandfather Jack Dickens, and was voted Members’ Player of the Year in 2005/06.
Coming through the Tigers Academy, the former pupil of John Cleveland College made his Tigers debut against Biarritz in the Orange Cup in August 2002 (the same day as Dan Hipkiss’ first senior appearance) and won representative honours with England U-18s, U-21s and Saxons, including a trip to the Churchill Cup in North America in 2006. He was one of three Tigers youngsters in the England squad that competed in the IRB U-21 World Championship in South Africa during the summer of 2002, before going on to win both the supporters’ and players’ awards for Young Player of the Year at Tigers later that season.
