Josevata Taliga "Joe" Rokocoko (pronounced , born 6 June 1983) is a New Zealand former professional

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 wing. Born in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, Rokocoko grew up in New Zealand and played 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 ...

and

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 ...

. He later played for French clubs

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

and

Racing 92 Racing 92 () is a French rugby union club based in suburban Paris that was formed in 2001 with the collaboration of the Racing Club de France and US Métro. They were called Racing Métro 92 between 2001 and 2015, when they changed the name to ...

. He won 68 caps 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 2003 and 2010, and scored 46 tries. He is New Zealand's joint-second-top try scorer.

Early life

Born 6 June 1983 in

Nadi, Fiji Nadi (pronounced ) is the third-largest conurbation in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 42,284 at the most recent census, in 2007. A 2012 estimate showed that the population had ...

, Rokocoko migrated to New Zealand with his family at the age of 5, settling in Weymouth, South Auckland, and he attended

James Cook High School James Cook High School is a state co-ed secondary school in the South Auckland suburb of Manurewa, New Zealand. School structure The school's colours are royal blue and gold. History James Cook High School was opened in February 1968. Like ...

. Rokocoko later won a scholarship to

Saint Kentigern College Saint Kentigern College is a private co-educational Presbyterian secondary school in the suburb of Pakuranga on the eastern side of Auckland, New Zealand, beside the Tamaki Estuary. It is operated by the Saint Kentigern Trust Board which also o ...

, where he was a member of the 2001 National Secondary Schools team. After an outstanding career with New Zealand international sides at the under-16, under-19, and under-21 level, he started playing

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 ...

rugby.

Playing career

Rokocoko played for the

in the

2003 Super 12 season The 2003 Super 12 season was the eighth season of the Super 12, contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 2003, with each team playing all the others once. At the end of the regular season ...

. He made his first appearance for the All Blacks on 14 June 2003 against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He had a high strike rate 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 ...

, scoring 25 tries in his first 20 tests, and breaking the All Blacks single-season record for test tries previously shared by

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 ...

and

Christian Cullen Christian Mathias Cullen (born 12 February 1976) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. He played most of his rugby at fullback for New Zealand (the All Blacks), for the Hurricanes in the Super 12, and for Manawatu, Wellington and later ...

—his 17 test tries scored in 2003 equals the world record held by

Daisuke Ohata is a former Japanese rugby union player. He usually played on the wing, and sometimes at centre, for the Japanese national team. He made his name internationally as a speedy ace in the World Rugby Sevens Series (then known as the IRB World Sevens ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The International Rugby Players' Association named him new player of the year in 2003. His incredible speed has been seen many times throughout his career. On 19 June 2004, in the All Blacks' second 2004 test with England, Rokocoko shredded the England defence for three tries in a 36–12 All Blacks victory over the reigning

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

champions. Rokocoko returned to the All Blacks line-up for the

2005 Tri Nations Series The 2005 Tri Nations Series, an annual rugby union competition between the national teams of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, was the tenth in the series. The competition is organised by SANZAR, a consortium of the three countries' rugby ...

, punctuating his comeback with a two-try effort in the All Blacks' pivotal home fixture against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. By the end of the 2006 season he had scored 35 tries in 39 test matches – and in total scored 46 tries with the All Blacks in 68 tests, including 4 hat-tricks: against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

(2003),

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 ...

(2003), England (2004) and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

(2007). He scored his first try since the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in June 2009. In 2011, after 68 games for New Zealand and 96 for the Blues, he signed with

Aviron Bayonnais Aviron Bayonnais ( eu, Baionako Arrauna), commonly called Bayonne, is a French rugby union club from Bayonne (''Baiona'', in Basque) in Pyrénées-Atlantiques which, for the 2016-17 season, competed in the top tier of the French league system, ...

of the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

. He played for

for a total of four seasons, where he made a positional switch from wing to centre during his time there. In July 2015, it was announced that Rokocoko had signed a contract with

Racing Metro 92 In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

, and will link up with a host of other New Zealanders plying their trade at this club in Paris. He debuted for them on Friday 21 August 2015, where Racing Metro recorded an emphatic victory over Toulon at

Stade Mayol The Stade Mayol is a multi-purpose stadium in Toulon, France. It is currently used mostly for rugby union matches and is the home stadium of RC Toulonnais. The stadium is able to hold 17,500 people. It is one of the few French stadiums to be embe ...

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

. In the final of the 2015–16 Top 14 season Rokocoko scored a try as Racing defeated Toulon.

Personal life

Although often known as Joe, Rokocoko asked New Zealand rugby management to list his Christian birth name, Josevata, on team releases. He is a cousin of former

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 ...

and All Black winger

Joeli Vidiri Joeli Vidiri (23 November 1973 – 23 February 2022) was a professional rugby union footballer who played as a Wing (rugby union), wing. Born in Fiji, he earned seven caps for the Fiji national rugby union team, Fiji national team before switch ...

and

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 ...

player

Iliesa Tanivula Iliesa Samusamuvodre Tanivula (born 20 September 1975) is a former New Zealand sevens player and the current coach of the Fiji sevens team. Tanivula could play most positions in the backline. He mainly played at centre, wing or fullback. Play ...

. He and fellow All Black wing

Sitiveni Sivivatu Sitiveni Waica Sivivatu (born 19 April 1982 in Suva, Fiji) is a retired New Zealand rugby union footballer, playing on the position of a wing. He was largely successful in the 2005 Super 12 season playing for the Chiefs. He acquired a starting ...

regard themselves as cousins because Sivivatu lived with the Rokocoko family, but they are not blood relations. In January 2008, Rokocoko married Beverly Politini, the daughter of Howard Politini, a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

in the Fiji Military, at a wedding attended by a large number of

. They have a son called Cypress Rokocoko.

Honours

: 2015–16

References

External links

*
New Zealand Rugby Museum article on RokocokoRokocoko profile from official Blues Super 12 site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rokocoko, Joe 1983 births New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand people of I-Taukei Fijian descent New Zealand international rugby union players Blues (Super Rugby) players Auckland rugby union players Aviron Bayonnais players Rugby union wings Fijian emigrants to New Zealand People educated at Saint Kentigern College Living people New Zealand expatriate rugby union players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate rugby union players in France New Zealand international rugby sevens players New Zealand male rugby sevens players Sportspeople from Nadi People educated at James Cook High School University of Auckland alumni