James William Parsons (born 27 November 1986) is a New Zealand retired

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 who played as a hooker for the in

Super Rugby 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 ...

and North Harbour in the

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Global School, an English medium co-educational day school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Tekn ...

. He has also played two matches 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 ...

. He is one of just 3 players that have ever become a Blues centurion and Player of the Year

Early life

He was born in

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

and educated at King's College 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 ...

, completing his education in 2004.

Career

He was first selected for North Harbour in 2007 and went on to become a centurion for the province. In 2012 he debuted for the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

, his first game being against the Highlanders. After being called up to the All Blacks squad as injury cover, he made his international debut against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

on 15 November 2014. Parsons is one of eight All Blacks to have come from the Takapuna Rugby Club. In 2015, he gave up his starting spot to the retiring

Keven Mealamu Keven Filipo Mealamu (born 20 March 1979) is a former New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played at hooker for the Blues in Super Rugby, Auckland in the National Provincial Championship, and the New Zealand national team. He was a key membe ...

in his 50th appearance for the Blues against Highlanders at Eden Park. Parsons would take over as the captain of the Blues the following year. Parsons was re-selected for New Zealand in 2016, following the injury of Nathan Harris, playing off the bench against Australia in Westpac Stadium for the Bledisloe Series. Parsons was later injured himself at a training session, preventing any further game time that year. In the same year he won Blues Player of the Year. In 2019 Parsons re-signed with the Blues until 2021. In January 2021, Parsons announced his retirement from rugby, on medical advice.

Notes

External links

*
James Parsons , Rugby Database Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, James 1986 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Rugby union hookers Blues (Super Rugby) players North Harbour rugby union players Rugby union players from Palmerston North