Age 37. A product of local rugby in Aberavon, he launched his career at Taibach and Aberavon Quins before playing for the Wizards. A hugely physical player, he played rugby league for Aberavon Fighting Irish and made one appearance for the Wales A rugby league side in their 28–18 win over England in Aberavon in 2003, and also spent a week on trial at St Helens. He then moved to Swansea, where he played 81 matches.
He then joined the Ospreys in 2004. He made his debut against Munster in December 2004, and gained a full contract with the Ospreys in 2006, having played rugby within the region for Swansea RFC. Hibbard won the prestigious Patron's Player of the Year award at Swansea for the 2005–2006 season. He received his first call up to the Wales National Squad for Wales's tour to Argentina in the summer of 2006, where he gained his first two caps for Wales. After having shoulder reconstruction surgery at the start of the 2006–2007 season, Hibbard made only four replacement appearances for the Ospreys in 2007 at the close of the season. Despite this, he received a call-up to the Wales squad to tour Australia in May/June and appeared in both Tests as a replacement. Following the tour Down Under, Hibbard was named in Gareth Jenkins's 41-man preliminary Rugby World Cup 2007 summer training squad.
He then become a regular in Warren Gatland’s squad, with 38 caps to his name culminating in him helping the Welsh team win the 2013 Six Nations Championship, which resulted in his selection for the British & Irish Lions tour of Australia in the summer of 2013.
Hibbs capped a fantastic season by appearing more times than any other Lion on Tour in 2013, including a match winning performance in the final test, which helped the Lions secure a series victory.
Richard joined Gloucester ahead of the 2014-15 season, and after a powerful and dynamic debut season in Cherry and White when the club lifted the European Rugby Challenge Cup, Hibbard was named in the Wales training squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and played his last Wales game against Ireland in the warm up match at the Millennium Stadium, scoring a try in the process, unfortunately not making the final squad, much to the amazement of many people.
Since then, Richard went from strength to strength at Gloucester, playing 100 games for them in the Aviva Premiership and European Challenge Cup, which they won once and also lost in the final to Stade Francais the following season. Indeed, the 2016/17 season will probably go down with him personally, as his most successful, having won the Player of the Season and Supporters Player of the Season Awards at Gloucester in May, and a long awaited and well-deserved Barbarians call up against England and Ulster.
Since 2018, Richard has been at the Dragons, in the Pro 14, captaining them on numerous occasions, and has signed a new one-year contract which will take him to June 2022 at the Dragons, when he will be in his 39th year!