Kieran Read
Kieran James Read (born 26 October 1985) is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He played as a number 8 and is a former captain of the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks. Read played for New Zealand from 2008 to 2019. He is one of the most-capped players of all time, and the forth-most-capped All Black in history, having played 128 tests, scoring 26 international tries. Read captained New Zealand 52 times. He was the IRB Player of the Year in 2013 and a key member of New Zealand's 2011 and 2015 World Cup-winning teams, becoming one of only 20 players to have won multiple Rugby World Cups. Read played for the in the Super Rugby competition, and played for and in the Mitre 10 Cup, before spending his final season in Japan with Toyota Verblitz. Early life Read played his childhood rugby in the small town of Drury in the Counties Manukau region, just south of Auckland. He attended Opaheke Primary where his mother taught and Rosehill College, with a one-year ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Papakura, New Zealand
Papakura District was a local council territory in New Zealand's Auckland Region that was governed by the Papakura District Council from 1989 until 2010. The area makes up the southernmost part of the Auckland metropolitan area. The area was originally a small independent city, until it became ''Papakura District'' in the 1989 reorganisation of New Zealand's local governments, and has now been overtaken by Auckland's urban sprawl. The district is flanked by beaches on the Manukau Harbour to the west, Manukau City to the north and east, and had Franklin District to the south. Geography In 2010, Papakura District boundaries covered 123 square kilometres and the centre of the district was located 32 km from downtown Auckland. The geography of the district encompasses fertile plains, the inlets and foreshores of the Manukau Harbour, and the rolling foothills of the Hunua Range; a relatively narrow but strategically well positioned narrow span of land between the Hauraki Gul ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hemisphere competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986, with teams from a number of southern nations, the Super Rugby started as the Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from 3 countries: Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995. At its peak the tournament featured the top players from nations representing 16 of the 24 top-three finishes in the history of the Rugby World Cup. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to split into three, the reformed competition in 2021 and beyond will only include Oceanian clubs representing Australia, New Zealand and from the Pacific islands (specifically a Fijian team, and a New Zealand ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2018 Super Rugby Season
The 2018 Super Rugby season was the 23rd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. After two seasons in which 18 teams participated, the 2018 season reverted to a 15-team competition, consisting of three geographical conferences. The South African Rugby Union announced that the and would be dropped for the 2018 season, while the Australian Rugby Union, now known as Rugby Australia, announced the exclusion of the . The South African franchises thereafter entered the newly renamed Pro14 competition, while the Western Force took part in the National Rugby Championship, the domestic Australia competition, while preparing to enter the new Global Rapid Rugby competition in 2019. Competition format The 15 participating teams are divided into three geographical conferences: the Australian Conference (consisting of four Australian teams and the Japanese ), the New Zealand ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ryan Crotty
Ryan Stevenson Crotty (born 23 September 1988) is a New Zealand-born rugby union footballer. He currently plays as a midfield back for the Kubota Spears in the Japanese Top League. Crotty played 48 tests for New Zealand's international team, the All Blacks, from 2013 until the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Crotty scored 12 tries for New Zealand in his international career. Crotty has previously played for the Crusaders in the Super Rugby competition and Canterbury in the ITM Cup, Captaining both teams. Playing career Early career Crotty was selected for the New Zealand Under 20 rugby team in 2008. This team included Crotty's future All Blacks team-mates Aaron Smith, Ben Afeaki and Sam Whitelock as well as future Scottish international player Sean Maitland and future Australian international player Toby Smith. This team went on to win the 2008 IRB Junior World Championship. Crotty debuted for Canterbury later that year and was signed to the Crusaders for the 2009 season after a s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Matt Todd
Matthew Brendon Todd (born 24 March 1988) is a New Zealand rugby union footballer, who plays as an Openside Flanker for the Toshiba Brave Lupus in the Japanese Top League competition. Todd played 25 tests for New Zealand internationally, from his debut in 2013, until his last test, during the 2019 Rugby World Cup. He scored three tries for New Zealand and also became the first overseas-based player to represent the All Blacks, in 2018, when he first signed for Panasonic. Todd began his professional rugby union career, through representing Canterbury in the ITM Cup, from 2009 to 2017, going on to play more than 150 games for the Crusaders in Super Rugby. Early life Todd's started playing rugby at the Kaiapoi Rugby Football Union and went on to play for the Kaiapoi High School first XV. He then took the opportunity of a full scholarship at CBHS. While at Christchurch Boys' High School, Todd appeared alongside future All Black team-mates, Colin Slade and Owen Franks, as well as f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sam Whitelock
Samuel Lawrence Whitelock (born 12 October 1988) is a New Zealand rugby union player who plays as a lock for the Crusaders in Super Rugby and Canterbury in the Mitre 10 Cup. Whitelock has captained the Crusaders, and New Zealand in five international games. Whitelock has played over 100 tests for New Zealand since his debut in 2010 and is the youngest New Zealander to reach 100 tests. He is the fastest player ever to reach 100 international appearances, achieving the feat eight years and two months after his test debut. Whitelock was the winner of New Zealand Rugby Player of the Year in 2017. He has formed a renowned locking combination with Brodie Retallick; Whitelock and Retallick have played 50 tests together since 2012. He was a key member of the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup-winning teams, becoming one of only 20 players who have won the Rugby World Cup more than once. Playing career Early career Whitelock was part of the World championship winning team, the Baby Al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Richie McCaw
Richard Hugh McCaw (born 31 December 1980) is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He captained the national team, the All Blacks, in 110 out of his 148 test matches, and won two Rugby World Cups. He has won the World Rugby player of the year award a joint record three times and was the most capped test rugby player of all time from August 2015 to October 2020. McCaw was awarded World Rugby player of the decade (2011–2020) in 2021. McCaw is also a winner of the New Zealand sportsman of the decade award, the highest sporting honour a sports individual can achieve in New Zealand. McCaw was the first All Black to reach 100 caps, and the first rugby union player to win 100 tests. He was the most-capped player in rugby union history with 148 caps, having overtaken Brian O'Driscoll's record in 2015 and losing the record to Alun Wyn Jones in 2020. McCaw has also equaled the record for most appearances at the Rugby World Cup with Jason Leonard. McCaw predominan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2008 Super 14 Season
The 2008 Super 14 season started in February 2008 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 31 May, when the Crusaders won their seventh Super Rugby title with a 20–12 victory over the Waratahs in front of the Crusaders' home fans at AMI Stadium. The 2008 season was the third of the expansion, which led to the name change to the Super 14. The schedule, which covered 3½ months, featured a total of 94 matches, with each team playing one full round robin against the 13 other teams, two semi-finals and a final. Every team received one bye over the 14 rounds. Introduction of Experimental law variations The 2008 competition is currently the highest level competition to trial any of the International Rugby Board's (IRB) Experimental law variations (ELVs). The laws had been trialled in various competitions in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. The highest level competition the laws had previously been introduced to was the 2007 Australian Rugby Champio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2007 Super 14 Season
The 2007 Super 14 season started in February 2007 with preseason matches held from mid-January. It finished on 19 May with the final at ABSA Stadium in Durban, in the first final between two South African teams in the history of Super Rugby. The visiting Bulls won the 2007 Super 14 Final, scoring a try in the 83rd minute and narrowly defeating the Sharks 20–19, thereby becoming the first South African side to win the Super Rugby title in the professional era. Super 14 is a provincial rugby union competition with 14 teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. This season is the second of the expansion, which led to the name change to the Super 14. The 2007 season saw an old team emerge with a new name, as the Cats changed their name to the Lions effective 8 September 2006. There was also some confusion over the inclusion of the Southern Spears franchise, who were in the end not included. The season is also notable of the New Zealand sides resting several All Blacks pla ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Crusaders (rugby)
The Crusaders (formerly Canterbury Crusaders and BNZ Crusaders due to sponsorship by the Bank of New Zealand) are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Christchurch, who compete in the Super Rugby competition. They are the most successful team in the competition's history and have won 11 titles ( 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022), as well as two regionalised titles in 2020 and 2021. Formed in 1996 to represent the upper South Island of New Zealand in the Super 12, the Crusaders represent the Buller, Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury, South Canterbury, Tasman and West Coast provincial Rugby Unions. Their main home ground since 2012 is Rugby League Park (known for sponsorship reasons as Orangetheory Stadium). They formerly played out of Lancaster Park prior to it being damaged beyond repair in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The Crusaders struggled in the first season of the Super 12, 1996, finishing last. Their performance impro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saint Kentigern College
Saint Kentigern College is a private co-educational Presbyterian secondary school in the suburb of Pakuranga on the eastern side of Auckland, New Zealand, beside the Tamaki Estuary. It is operated by the Saint Kentigern Trust Board which also operates Saint Kentigern Boys' School, Saint Kentigern Girls' School and Saint Kentigern Preschool based at two different campuses in Remuera. Established in 1953, the college is semi-coeducational with a single-gender Middle College for years 7 and 8, with years 9 and 10 single-gender in core subjects and a co-educational Senior College for years 11–13. Kentigern (or Mungo) is the patron Saint of Glasgow. In 2003, the college introduced girls into the school for the first time with 140 female students; these were known as the foundation girls. There are now over 900 female students attending, with numbers increasing every year. Saint Kentigern College is an IB World School offering the IB Diploma Programme for Year 12 and 13 students. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by population, fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and which has a total population of . While European New Zealanders, Europeans continue to make up the plurality of Auckland's population, the city became multicultural and Cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitan in the late-20th century, with Asian New Zealanders, Asians accounting for 31% of the city's population in 2018. Auckland has the fourth largest Foreign born, foreign-born population in the world, with 39% of its residents born overseas. With its large population of Pasifika New Zealanders, the city is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |