Hoani MacDonald (born 21 August 1978) is a former New Zealand

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 ...

player and current coach. He played provincial rugby for

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

, and for the Highlanders in Super Rugby. In September 2008, he joined Welsh side the

Newport Gwent Dragons Dragons RFC ( cy, Dreigiau) are one of the four professional rugby union regional teams in Wales. They are owned by the Welsh Rugby Union and play their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport and at other grounds around the region. They play in ...

in the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...

. MacDonald signed with the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

for the

2011 Super Rugby season The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16t ...

. On 20 October 2012, MacDonald suffered a cardiac arrest in a match for

against Counties Manukau in an ITM Cup semi final. He had CPR performed on the pitch, before being transferred to hospital and placed in an induced coma. MacDonald was in hospital for one week and doctors fitted him with an

implantable cardioverter-defibrillator An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) is a device implantable inside the body, able to perform defibrillation, and depending on the type, cardioversion and pacing of the h ...

. As a result, he retired from playing rugby. In 2015, it was announced MacDonald had become the Southland coach for at least the next two seasons. He has been part of the coaching staff since his retirement.

References

External links

Newport Gwent Dragons profileJunior All Blacks Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Hoani 1978 births Living people New Zealand rugby union coaches New Zealand rugby union players Dragons RFC players Rugby union locks Rugby union flankers Māori All Blacks players Melbourne Rebels players Highlanders (rugby union) players Southland rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in Wales New Zealand expatriate rugby union players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Wales Rugby union players from Invercargill Expatriate rugby union players in Australia