Taniela Tupou (rugby Union)
Taniela Tupou (born 10 May 1996) is an Australian professional rugby union player. He plays as a tight head prop for the Queensland Reds in Super Rugby and has represented in international rugby. Born in Tonga he qualifies for Australia by residency. Early life and career Tupou became known as a schoolboy rugby player. While playing for Auckland’s Sacred Heart College First XV in 2014, he became an internet sensation for his three tries against Kelston Boys High School, earning him the nickname "Tongan Thor". On 22 June 2014, he was named in the Pacific Barbarians squad, captained by All Black legend Justin Marshall, to play Tonga during the 2014 mid-year rugby union internationals. Tonga won the match 36–14 at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland. The following month Tupou was given a deadline to sign a loyalty agreement to be eligible for the New Zealand Schoolboys team. However, he declined the offer. Despite interest from rugby clubs in France and England as well as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rugby Union Positions
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-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 an important role in se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chiefs (rugby Union)
The Chiefs (formerly known as the Waikato Chiefs and officially called the Gallagher Chiefs for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Hamilton, Waikato. The team competes in the Super Rugby competition, previously known as the Super 12 and Super 14, and are one of the competition's five New Zealand teams. Their primary home ground is Waikato Stadium. Until 2004, the Chiefs were the only New Zealand side never to have qualified for the Super 12 semi-finals. In that year the Chiefs earned their first semi-final berth, and in the end achieved fourth place (defeated 37–20 in the semi-final by the ACT Brumbies). They subsequently reached the 2009 final, but found themselves on the short end of a record 61–17 defeat by the Bulls. The Chiefs were rewarded with a home final after a strong 2012 season. The Chiefs defeated the 37–6, winning their first title. In 2013, the Chiefs became the fourth team to record back-to-back title wins, ... [...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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2017 Super Rugby Season
The 2017 Super Rugby season was the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the second season featuring an expanded 18-team format, following the competition's expansion from 15 teams prior to the 2016 season. After 17 rounds of matches between 23 February and 15 July – with Rounds 15 and 16 split due to the 2017 mid-year rugby union internationals and British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand – four conference winners and four wildcard teams progressed to the finals series, which will consist of quarterfinals, semifinals and a final on 5 August. Competition format The 18 participating teams were divided into two geographical groups, each consisting of two conferences: the Australasian Group, with five teams in the Australian Conference and five teams in the New Zealand Conference, and the South African Group, with six South African teams, on ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2016 Super Rugby Season
The 2016 Super Rugby season was the 21st season of Super Rugby and the first season featuring an expanded 18-team format. It was also the first season that teams outside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa featured, with the Jaguares from Argentina and the Sunwolves from Japan taking part. This season also saw the return of the Kings, who competed just once before, in the 2013 Super Rugby season. The round-robin games took place every weekend from 26 February to 16 July 2016 (with a break for international matches during June), followed by the finals series at the end of July and culminating in the final on 6 August. The Hurricanes won their first championship after repeating their efforts of 2015 by finishing first in the regular season and hosting the final at Westpac Stadium, but this time they won, beating the Lions 20–3. Unlike 2015, where the Hurricanes looked likely to finish the regular season first with a number of rounds to go, they were sitting in seventh going ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium (known as BT Murrayfield Stadium for sponsorship reasons, or popularly as Murrayfield) is a Rugby stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest stadium in Scotland and the fifth largest in the United Kingdom. The stadium is the home of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) and is mainly used as a venue for rugby union. The stadium hosts most of Scotland's home test matches and the ''Scottish Hydro Electric Cup'' final, as well as URC and European Rugby Champions Cup matches. Although primarily a rugby union stadium, Murrayfield has in the past hosted American football, rugby league and association football matches, as well as numerous music concerts. History Purchase of land The SRU identified 19 acres of land at Murrayfield, purchasing this from Edinburgh Polo Club at Murrayfield, having raised money through debentures. A stand and three embankments were constructed, which took two ye ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2016 End-of-year Rugby Union Internationals
The 2016 end-of-year rugby union internationals, also known as the ''2016 Autumn Internationals'' in the Northern Hemisphere, were a series of international rugby union matches predominantly played between the visiting Southern Hemisphere countries: Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – and the European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The 2016 November international window saw 37 international matches take place, with an additional seven international matches taking place outside the allocated three week window. 27 nations across all three tiers competed in at least one test, with a record 27 matches including a tier 2 or tier 3 side, seven of which were a tier 1 v tier 2 fixture, as World Rugby tried to build on the tier 2 success in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, moving towards the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Coinciding with the international window, the 2016 Cup of Nations took place, bringing the total number of matches up to 51 for 31 nation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wallabies (rugby Union)
The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the touring British Isles team. Australia have competed in all nine Rugby World Cups, winning the final on two occasions and also finishing as runner-up twice. Australia beat England at Twickenham in the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup and won again in 1999 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff when their opponents in the final were France. The Wallabies also compete annually in The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri-Nations), along with southern hemisphere counterparts Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa. They have won this championship on four occasions. Australia also plays Test matches against the various rugby-playing nations. More than a dozen former Wallabies players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. His ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Rugby Championship
The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following the change of the Australian rugby TV broadcasting deal from Fox Sports, who had funded the competition, to Stan Sport. The 2020 competition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Format The National Rugby Championship was usually held between late August and early November. A round-robin tournament was scheduled first where each team played all others once. The top four teams progressed to the championship playoffs consisting of two semi-final knockout matches and a grand final to determine the champion team and winner of the NRC Trophy, nicknamed 'The Toast Rack'. During the round-robin section of the tournament, teams would also play for the Horan-Little Shield, a challenge trophy put on the line by the holders when a challe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Queensland Country (NRC Team)
Queensland Country is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is one of two Queensland sides in the competition, the other being . Queensland Country is organised and managed by the Queensland Rugby Union (QRU), with the coaching and training programs used at the Queensland Reds extended to players joining the team from the Reds, Queensland Premier Rugby, Premier and Queensland Country Championships, Country rugby teams. The Queensland Country team in the NRC draws its identity from the Queensland Country Heelers, Queensland Country representative team that has played in regular City-Country fixtures in Queensland since 1902. The same colours have been adopted for the team in the NRC competition and, while the Heelers' Australian cattle dog, cattle dog logo is not used, an emblem based on the traditional Vappodes phalaenopsis, Cooktown Orchid logo of the Queensland Country Rugby Union has been adopted. The Queensla ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Queensland Premier Rugby
Queensland Premier Rugby is a semi professional club rugby union competition in Queensland, Australia. Nine clubs play in the competition, eight of which are from Brisbane with one club from the Gold Coast. The premiership has been contested in its present form since 1929. History Queensland Premier Rugby (QPR) evolved out of the Brisbane club competition that had been running since 1887. It was created by players, administrators, referees and coaches to expand and improve the top level of Queensland non-professional rugby. QPR provides Queensland rugby players a stepping stone for selection into the Queensland Reds and other teams in Super Rugby or other professional rugby competitions. Previous to 1920, the Hospitals Challenge Cup was established as a fund-raising exercise for the Brisbane General Hospital. After the devastation of World War I the competition was suspended until the Hospitals Cup was established. The Brisbane Club competition recommenced in 1929. The 197 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brothers Old Boys
Brothers Rugby Club (formally Brothers Old Boys) is an Australian rugby union club based in Brisbane, Queensland. The name alludes to its beginnings as a rugby club founded by alumni of schools established by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. Brothers currently competes in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition against nine of the states best Rugby Union clubs. The club was established in 1905 and has won 28 'A' Grade premierships since. They have produced 258 Queensland and 91 Internationals including 78 Wallaby players over the last century. The club is located at Crosby Park, Albion where it has a clubhouse, two canteens and the use of two illuminated fields. History First golden era The Brothers Old Boys Rugby Union Club was formed at a meeting held in 1905 by old boys of Gregory Terrace, Nudgee College and St James College who wanted a Rugby club that 'old boys' (past students) could all play for. It was further decided at this meeting to play in the school colou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |