Craig Dowd born 26 October 1969 in

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 ...

, New Zealand is a former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player and ex-coach. He played 60 test matches 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 ...

between 1993 and 2000, spending his entire provincial career with

. He spent his entire

Super 12 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 Hem ...

career, 64 matches, with the

Auckland Blues The Blues (known as the Auckland Blues from 1996 to 2000) is a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Auckland, who play in the Super Rugby competition. Like New Zealand's four other Super Rugby teams, the Blues were established by ...

, between 1996 and 2001 and is the official Blues player number 001, winning back-to-back titles in 1996 and 1997. From 2001 to 2005 he played for

London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...

in the

Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

, amassing 115 caps with the club. He started as Wasps won the 2002–03 Premiership Final, and two years later was a replacement when they won it again. Following his retirement as a player he took on a coaching role with the club. In 2009 he took up a position as the Head coach for North Harbour in the Air New Zealand Cup. Formed one of the greatest frontrow combinations with Sean Fitzpatrick and Olo Brown. In 2020, he finished season 1 of ''Match Fit'', despite battling weight issues and sciatica''.'' He managed to revert back to his playing weight. He was also the only member with a

forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

license.

References

External links

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Wasps coaching profileWasps playing profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowd, Craig 1969 births Living people Wasps RFC players Expatriate sportspeople in England New Zealand international rugby union players New Zealand people of Irish descent New Zealand rugby union coaches New Zealand rugby union players People educated at Liston College Rugby union props