Halfpenny's time at Quins

Leigh Halfpenny’s move to Harlequins has been one of the most eye-catching signings of the summer.

With more than 100 Wales caps to his name and having toured with the British and Irish Lions on three occasions, few arrivals in the history of Gallagher Premiership Rugby have come with as much pedigree.

Halfpenny made his Wales debut nearly 16 years ago in the 2008 Autumn Internationals. To put his longevity into perspective, new teammate Fin Baxter was just six-years-old and playing his rugby for Cobham juniors when the full-back made his Test bow against world champions South Africa.

Halfpenny’s illustrious career has seen him win Guinness Six Nations Grand Slams and European titles – one of his final assignments is helping Harlequins back to the Premiership summit.

Fast starter to Gatland favourite

At the age of just 19, Halfpenny was handed his Wales debut by Warren Gatland.

Having only made his Cardiff Rugby bow earlier that same year, Halfpenny started on the wing and notched his first points for his country while Stephen Jones received treatment for an injury.

Scoring two tries a week later against Canada, Halfpenny quickly became a Gatland favourite and was selected by Sir Ian McGeechan for the 2009 British & Irish Lions Tour of South Africa.

The Tour didn’t go as planned though as Halfpenny made just one appearance against the Free State Cheetahs as the tourists lost the three-match Test series 2-1.

Brilliant in blue

Halfpenny returned to club side Cardiff in the autumn and played a starring role in an historic 2009/10 season.

Halfpenny and his teammates threatened in the Celtic League but ultimately finished fifth and outside of semi-final contention.

It was in the Challenge Cup where their finest work was done as Cardiff became the first Welsh club to lift European silverware, with Halfpenny hugely influential, especially in the final.

Effectively the away side at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, Cardiff took on a Toulon side who would in time become the dominant force of their generation.

Halfpenny slotted over a sixth-minute penalty and later crossed for a decisive try with 15 minutes remaining to help his side to a 28-21 victory over a Red and Blacks team that included global icons such as Jonny Wilkinson and Sonny Bill Williams.

A Slam dunk

Halfpenny had scarcely begun his senior career when Wales won their 2008 Grand Slam but he was a protagonist when they repeated the feat four years later.

By this stage Gatland’s premier full-back, Halfpenny finished as the top points scorer across the Championship with 66 as Wales bounced back from their World Cup semi-final heartbreak just a few months earlier.

Halfpenny helped Wales retain their crown the following year, kicking the match-winning penalty in the opening game of the Championship against Ireland in Dublin before a 22-point haul in a dominant win over Scotland.

Lions glory

Arguably the standout moment of Halfpenny’s international career came when he was named player of the series as the Lions won a first Test series for 16 years in Australia.

Halfpenny started all three matches against the Wallabies in 2013 and bounced back from narrowly missing a kick which would have wrapped up the series in the second Test with a virtuoso display in the third.

Kicking five penalties and three conversions in Sydney, Halfpenny broke the record of his kicking coach, Neil Jenkins, for the most points in a Test series, surpassing his countryman’s total by eight to finish with 49 points in the Tests and 114 in total.

It was this tour which cemented Halfpenny as one of the game’s leading players, but at just 24, there was much more to come.

Champions Cup triumph

Halfpenny joined French club Toulon in 2014 – a very different beast to that which Cardiff had tamed in the Challenge Cup final just four years previously.

Two-time Champions Cup winners and Top 14 champions, Halfpenny helped the side secure a third and, to date, final Champions Cup trophy.

With Jonny Wilkinson having retired, Halfpenny took on kicking duties for an all-star side, in which the Welshman could call Bryan Habana, Matt Giteau and Mathieu Bastareaud teammates.

Kicking 16 points in the 2015 triumph over Clermont at Twickenham, Halfpenny helped rubber-stamp Toulon’s status as one of the great club sides in rugby history.

Room 101

Halfpenny became the ninth Welsh player to reach 100 caps for his country when he ran out against England at Principality Stadium last year.

Capped at every age level from U16 through to the senior team, he played at the U19 Junior World Cup, the inaugural U20 Junior World Championship and featured in a third Rugby World Cup tournament last year.

The 35-year-old’s 101st and final game in the Welsh red came against the Barbarians in Cardiff last November, finishing as his country’s third all-time top points scorer.

“If you’re talking about having a role model as a professional player, you could not find a harder worker than Leigh Halfpenny in terms of how he prepares,” said Gatland, speaking after last year’s World Cup.

“The analysis, the training and the recovery, he’s the ultimate professional. He’s not the biggest guy in the world and he started his career on the wing.

“Then he has been brilliant as a positional No15. He’s maybe lost a yard or two of pace, he admits that himself, but he’s a tremendous goalkicker and is still probably the best defensive full-back in the world.”