Corban Baxter (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' McGregor; born 10 April 1994) is an Australian international

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 plays as a , or for the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

in the

NSWRL Women's Premiership The Harvey Norman Women's Premiership is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. It is the only state wide open age competition for women in New South Wales and is run by New South Wales Rugby League. The NSWRL Women's Premiershi ...

. She last played for the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

in the

NRL Women's Premiership The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...

and is an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

representative.

Background & Personal Life

Baxter was born 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, and has

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

ancestry. She moved to Australia with her family at the age of 3. Baxter has a son, who was born when she was aged 16, and has announced she is expecting another child in January 2023.

Playing career

In 2015, Baxter began playing

for the

Helensburgh Tigers The Helensburgh Tigers are an Australian rugby league football team based in Helensburgh, a country town of the Illawarra region. The club are a part of Country Rugby League and has competed in the Illawarra Rugby League premiership since its i ...

. That year, she made her debut for

in a 4-all draw with

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. On 6 May 2016, she made her Test debut for

, starting at in a 16–26 loss to

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 ...

. On 2 December 2017, Baxter started at in Australia's 23–16 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup Final win over New Zealand. In June 2018, she represented NSW City at the Women's National Championships. On 17 June 2018, she signed for the

team. On 22 June 2018, during the inaugural

Women's State of Origin The Women's State of Origin is an annual rugby league fixture between two Australian state representative women's sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons. First played in 1999 as the Women's Interstate Challenge, the game ...

, Baxter suffered a shoulder injury, ruling her out of the entire

2018 NRL Women's season The 2018 NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) was the first season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Only two of the four sides, the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand Warriors, took part in pre-season trial games. T ...

. In Round 1 of the

2019 NRL Women's season The 2019 NRL Women's Premiership was the second season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Regular season The season again operated under a round-robin format, with games played as curtain-raisers to the ...

, Baxter made her debut for the Roosters in their 12–16 loss to the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

. In October 2019, she represented Australia at the

2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s The 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s was the first staging of the Rugby League World Cup 9s tournament and took place on 18 and 19 October 2019 at Sydney's Bankwest Stadium. The tournament featured teams from 12 International Rugby League member ...

, where they lost to New Zealand in the finals. On 22 February 2020, she represented the Māori All Stars in their 4–10 loss to the Indigenous All Stars. On 25 October 2020, she started at and captained the Roosters in their 10–20

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

loss to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

. On 20 February 2021, she captained the Māori All Stars in their 24–0 win over the Indigenous All Stars. On 27 June 2022, Corban Baxter announced that due to pregnancy, she had missed the 2022 State of Origin match, and would miss the 2022 NRL Women's season (held from August to early October) and the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(in November 2022).

References

External links

Sydney Roosters profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Corban 1994 births Living people New Zealand Māori rugby league players Australian female rugby league players Australia women's national rugby league team players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league centres Rugby league five-eighths Sydney Roosters (NRLW) players