[3][4] As a player, Latham enjoyed a distinguished representative career with the Queensland Reds and Australia between 1998 and 2007 before signing with Worcester Warriors in the UK and later Japanese club Kyuden Voltex.
[7] The following March, he represented the Australian Rugby Sevens team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, but his campaign was cut short when he suffered a rib injury.
[10] Latham suffered misfortune in early 2007 when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in pre-season training with the Queensland Reds but managed to return for his third Rugby World Cup in October that year.
After a frustrating end to 2007 and start to the 2008 Super Rugby season where he battled a knee injury[11] his representative career in Australia came to an untimely close in his return match against the Crusaders.
In what should have been his penultimate appearance for the Queensland Reds, he ruptured his pectoral muscle 13 minutes into the game, drawing an end to his playing days on Australian soil as he'd already announced a move to Worcester for the following two seasons.