Eric James Rush (born 11 February 1965 in

Kaeo Kaeo (Māori: ''Kāeo'') is a township in the Far North District of New Zealand, located some northwest of Kerikeri. The town takes its name from the ''kāeo'' or New Zealand freshwater mussel, which is found in the nearby rivers. Sanfords ...

) is a

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 ...

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 it ...

footballer and rugby sevens legend, and now a supermarket owner. His

New Zealand Sevens 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 o ...

career began in 1988 and ran until past his 39th birthday in 2004. Rush played in more than 60 tournaments, with the highlights being two

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

gold medals and the World Cup Sevens victory in 2001. He was also voted Best and Fairest Player at the 1991 Hong Kong Sevens. He was regarded as a pacy and skillful winger and also played for the

All Blacks 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, ...

briefly until the emergence of

Jonah Lomu Jonah Tali Lomu (12 May 1975 – 18 November 2015) was a New Zealand professional rugby union player. Lomu is considered to have been the first true global superstar of rugby, and consequently had a huge impact on the game. He is widely regarde ...

effectively ended his All Blacks career. Lomu played a major role in the 2001 World Cup Sevens win, effectively filling in for Rush, who suffered a broken leg in New Zealand's last group match of that tournament.

Career

Rush switched full-time to rugby sevens in 1999 to compete in the newly formed IRB international Sevens circuit. Rush helped New Zealand to win the first six editions of the World Sevens Series. Over the course of 14 years, Rush regularly appeared for the

team at the

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens () is an rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competition, the Hong Kong Sevens is currently the s ...

and other sevens tournaments, mostly as captain. In later years, he was converted into a forward in the sevens version, with the wing position given to his understudy

Karl Te Nana Karl Solomon Te Nana (born 15 July 1975) is a New Zealand former rugby union and rugby league footballer, and currently works in broadcasting as a rugby commentator. A professional rugby union player, Te Nana won a gold medal as part of the Ne ...

. In 15's rugby, Rush played first for

Auckland Rugby Union The Auckland Rugby Union is a New Zealand provincial rugby union. The union was established in 1883 and was originally responsible for the administration of the sport in most of the former Auckland Province, although its boundaries have since ...

then moved North to play for North Harbour at NPC level, where he blossomed.

Retirement

On retiring from playing in 2005 he became assistant to

coach

Gordon Tietjens Sir Gordon Frederick Tietjens (born 9 December 1955) is head coach of the Samoa rugby sevens team, and a celebrated former coach of the New Zealand men's national team in rugby sevens, the All Blacks Sevens. When the International Rugby Boar ...

. In 2010 Rush became owner operator of the Browns Bay franchise of the New World Supermarket chain and in February 2014 took over the New World store in Kaikohe. On 17 September 2017 Rush took over ownership of New World, Regent in Whangarei. In 2020, he completed season 1 of ''Match Fit'', and revealed he had hip and knee replacements. Despite that, his metabolic age was 40 as a 58-year-old, the oldest member of the playing squad, and was by far the fittest player in the team. However, he had been sidelined with

heel spur A calcaneal spur (also known as a heel spur) is a bony outgrowth from the calcaneal tuberosity (heel bone). Calcaneal spurs are typically detected by x-ray examination. It is a form of exostosis. When a foot is exposed to constant stress, calcium ...

since week 2.

All Blacks Statistics

Tests: 9 (0 as Captain)
Games: 20 (0 as Captain)
Total Matches: 29 (0 as Captain)
Test Points: 25pts (5t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m)
Game Points: 65pts (13t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m)
Total Points: 90pts (18t, 0c, 0p, 0dg, 0m)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rush, Eric 1965 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union wings North Harbour rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Māori All Blacks players Rugby sevens players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Rugby sevens players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players of New Zealand People educated at Tangaroa College New Zealand international rugby sevens players New Zealand male rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens People from the Northland Region