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Liam Messam
Liam Justin Messam (born 25 March 1984) is a New Zealand rugby union player who plays TOP14 for RC Toulonnais. In Super Rugby, he previously played for the , and for Waikato in the ITM Cup. Messam predominantly plays as a blindside flanker but can fill in at Number 8 as well as openside flanker. After the retirement of then Chiefs captain Mils Muliaina, Messam was named the team's new co-captain from 2012 onwards, alongside Aaron Cruden. National team In October 2008, Messam was selected in New Zealand's end of year tour squad to tour Hong Kong and Europe. He played one test against Scotland and one match against Munster. He subsequently appeared several more times for New Zealand but was dropped a month out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in favour of Victor Vito. Since his debut in 2008 he won 40 test caps for the All Blacks. In 2004, at the age of just 20, he captained the New Zealand sevens team to its fifth IRB Sevens World Series title and in 2005 led the team to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blenheim, New Zealand
Blenheim ( ; mi, Waiharakeke) is the most populous town in the regions of New Zealand, region of Marlborough Region, Marlborough, in the north east of the South Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of The surrounding Marlborough wine region is well known as the centre of the New Zealand wine industry. It enjoys one of New Zealand's sunniest climates, with warm, relatively dry summers and cool, crisp winters. Blenheim is named after the Battle of Blenheim (1704), where troops led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough defeated a combined French and Bavarian force. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "Phormium tenax, flax stream" for . History The sheltered coastal bays of Marlborough supported a small Māori people, Māori population possibly as early as the 12th century. Archaeological evidence dates Polynesian human remains uncovered at Wairau Bar to the 13th century. The rich sea and bird life of the area would easil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TOP14
The Top 14 () is a professional sports, professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the National Rugby League (France), French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism of LNR. There is promotion and relegation between the Top 14 and the next level down, the Rugby Pro D2. The fourteen best rugby teams in France participate in the competition, hence the name Top 14. The competition was previously known as the Top 16. The league is one of the three major professional leagues in Europe (along with the English Premiership Rugby, Premiership and the United Rugby Championship, which brings together top clubs from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy and South Africa), from which the most successful European teams go forward to compete in the European Rugby Champions Cup, the pan-European championship which replaced the Heineken Cup after the 2013–14 Pro12, 2013– ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand National Rugby Sevens Team
The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record twelve World Rugby Sevens Series titles. The team has been officially known as the All Blacks Sevens since 1 June 2012. The team played for the first time at the 1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament. In 1983 it first entered the Hong Kong Sevens, where it has been champion 10 times and runner-up another 10 times. The All Blacks Sevens are the current Rugby World Cup Sevens. History World Sevens Series The team has won thirteen of the 21 World Rugby Sevens World Series events. Since 2000 when the series first started, the only times they have not won the series were in 2006 when Fiji were crowned champions, 2009, 2017 and 2018 won by South Africa. 2010 when they came second to Samoa and 2015, 2016 when Fiji won the series back to back and then in 2019 when Fiji won their 4th series title. Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Vito (rugby Player)
Victor Vasefanua Junior Vito (born 27 March 1987) is a New Zealand former rugby player and All Black who last played blindside flanker for French team La Rochelle. He was a star of New Zealand Sevens, and captained the 2006 New Zealand Under 19 Rugby team. Also in 2006 Vito was nominated for the IRB Under 19 Player of the Year Award. He is a key member of 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup winning teams, becoming one of only 21 players who have won the Rugby World Cup on multiple occasions. Vito attended the Wellington private school, Scots College, where he played for the 1st XV and was a boarder. While playing rugby in New Zealand, Vito was a member of amateur rugby Marist St Pats in Wellington, and was a prominent player in the 2009 Wellington Lions. In 2010 he started for the Hurricanes Super 14 team and was named in the All Blacks extended squad for the first tests of the year. During an interview with the ZM FM Morning Crew, Vito described his new position in the All Bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2011 Rugby World Cup
The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa at a meeting in Dublin on 17 November 2005. The tournament was won by New Zealand, who defeated France 8–7 in the final. The defending champions, South Africa, were eliminated by Australia 11–9 in the quarter-finals. The result marked the third time that the tournament was won by the country that hosted the event (following New Zealand in 1987 and South Africa in 1995). It was the largest sporting event ever held in New Zealand, eclipsing the 1987 Rugby World Cup, 1990 Commonwealth Games, 1992 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 America's Cup. Overseas visitors to New Zealand for the event totalled 133,000, more than the 95,000 that the organisers expected. However, there was a drop in non-event visitors, meaning the net increase i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Munster Rugby
Munster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Mumhan) is one of the four professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU's Munster Branch, which is responsible for rugby union throughout the Irish province of Munster. The team motto is "To the brave and faithful, nothing is impossible." This is derived from the motto of the MacCarthy clan – "Forti et Fideli nihil difficile". Their main home ground is Thomond Park, Limerick, though some games are played at Musgrave Park, Cork. History Foundation and early years Munster was officially founded in 1879, at the same time as Leinster and Ulster, with Connacht being founded ten years later in 1889. The first interprovincial matches between Leinster, Ulster and Munster, however, were held in 1875. The founding of the Munster branch of the IRFU was intended to organise and oversee the game within the province and prevent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scotland National Rugby Union Team
The Scotland national rugby union team represents Scotland in men's international rugby union and is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship and participates in the Rugby World Cup, which takes place every four years. As of 4 December 2022, Scotland are 7th in the World Rugby Rankings. The history of the team extends back to 1871 when the Scottish rugby team played their first official test match, winning 1–0 against England at Raeburn Place. Scotland competed in the Five Nations from the inaugural tournament in 1883, winning it 14 times outright—including the last Five Nations in 1999—and sharing it another 8. In 2000 the competition accepted a sixth competitor, Italy, thus forming the Six Nations. Since this change, Scotland have yet to win the competition. The Rugby World Cup was introduced in 1987 and Scotland have competed in all nine competitions, the most recent being in 2019, where they failed to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand National Rugby Union Team
The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, 2011 and 2015. They were the first country to win the Rugby World Cup 3 times. New Zealand has a 76 per-cent winning record in test-match rugby, and has secured more wins than losses against every test opponent. Since their international debut in 1903, New Zealand teams have played test matches against 19 nations, of which 12 have never won a game against the All Blacks. The team has also played against three multinational all-star teams, losing only eight of 45 matches. Since the introduction of the World Rugby Rankings in 2003, New Zealand has held the number-one ranking longer than all other teams combined. They jointly hold the record for the most consecutive test match wins for a tier-one ranked nation, along with England. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aaron Cruden
Aaron Wiremu Cruden (born 8 January 1989) is a New Zealand rugby union player, who plays for Chiefs and formerly Montpellier, Manawatu and New Zealand internationally. Cruden's usual position is first five-eighth (fly half). Early life Cruden of Māori descent was born in Palmerston North and attended Palmerston North Boys' High School. He captained the 2006 Palmerston North Boys' High School 1st XV which included the likes of Hadleigh Parkes, Kurt Baker and Andre Taylor. Cruden was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 19, which necessitated the removal of one of his testicles. The cancer has since gone into remission. In 2008, Cruden attended the High Performance Player's Course at the International Rugby Academy NZ (IRANZ). Cruden's Positional Coach was former All Black Grant Fox and Course Facilitator former All Black Jeff Wilson. Domestic career Manawatu (2008–present) Cruden made his provincial debut for Manawatu Turbos in 2008. Cruden captained New Ze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2012 Super Rugby Season
The 2012 Super Rugby season was the second season of the current 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involves teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as FxPro Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New Zealand and Vodacom Super Rugby in South Africa. Including its past incarnations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 17th season for the Southern Hemisphere's premier transnational club competition. The conference games took place every weekend from 24 February until 14 July (with a three-week break between rounds 15 and 16 for international matches), followed by the finals series, culminating in the grand final on 4 August. While its three main broadcasting partners are Fox Sports (Australia), Sky Sport (New Zealand) and SuperSport (South Africa), Super Rugby can be viewed in many countries throughout the world. The Chiefs, based in Hamilton, New Zealand, claimed their first-ever title ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mils Muliaina
Junior Malili "Mils" Muliaina (born 31 July 1980) is a former professional rugby union player who most recently played for San Francisco Rush in the US PRO Rugby competition. He played primarily as a fullback, though he has also played as a centre and on the wing. Born in Salelesi, Samoa, Muliaina moved with his family to Invercargill, New Zealand, at the age of three. At international level Muliaina played for from 2003 until his retirement after the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Muliaina became only the second All Black to reach 100 caps during the World Cup quarter-final against in 2011. He scored 33 tries for New Zealand and remains among the top 30 highest try scorers in rugby union. Early career He first attended Cargill High School then Southland Boys' High School, where he proved proficient enough at rugby to be offered a scholarship to Kelston Boys' High School in Auckland, in 1998. Subsequently, Muliaina played for the NZ Secondary Schools XV, the team winning that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Number 8 (rugby Union)
In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16–23. Players are not restricted to a single position, although they generally specialise in just one or two that suit their skills and body types. Players that play multiple positions are called "utility players". Forwards compete for the ball in scrums and Line-out (rugby union), line-outs and are generally bigger and stronger than the backs. Props push in the scrums, while the hooker tries to secure the ball for their team by "hooking" it back with their heel. The hooker is also the one who is responsible for throwing the ball in at line-outs, where it is mostly competed for by the locks, who are generally the tallest players on the team. The flankers and number eight are expected to be the first players to arrive at a breakdown and play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
