Clayton Ivan Friend (born 1964) is a New Zealand former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played at representative level for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, and at club level for

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

(two spells),

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...

and

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...

, as a , i.e. number 7.

Playing career

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, so ...

junior and

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 po ...

representative, Friend played for

in 1982 and then enjoyed a long spell with North Sydney. Cut by the

Bears Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the North ...

in 1990, he joined the Ryde-Eastwood team and, along with

Olsen Filipaina Olsen Orekewa Filipaina (23 April 1957 – 10 February 2022) was a professional rugby league footballer who represented both New Zealand and Western Samoa. He played for the Balmain Tigers, Eastern Suburbs, and North Sydney Bears during his New ...

, helped lead them to a Grand Final win in the

Metropolitan Cup The Ron Massey Cup (formerly known as the Bundaberg Red Cup and Jim Beam Cup) is a semi-professional development level rugby league competition in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, run jointly by the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) and the ...

.Coffey and Wood ''The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League'' At the end of the season he moved to England and returned to Carlisle. After a stint at

between 1992 and 1995, Friend returned home and played for the Counties Manukau Heroes in the

Lion Red Cup The Lion Red Cup was a New Zealand domestic rugby league competition that ran from 1994 to 1996 sponsored by brewers Lion Nathan. It was created due to the increase in public awareness of domestic rugby league due to the Auckland Warriors being a ...

International career

Friend toured with the 1982 and 1985 Kiwis and toured the United Kingdom in 1983 with the New Zealand Māori side.

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

(1 August 1991). ''The Official Rugby league Collection (Card 137 of 160)''.

. ISBN n/a

References

External links

Friend makes British debut
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friend, Clayton 1962 births Living people Auckland rugby league team players Carlisle RLFC players Counties Manukau rugby league team players Manukau Magpies players New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand Māori rugby league team players New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players North Sydney Bears players People educated at Onehunga High School Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Auckland Whitehaven R.L.F.C. players