Johan Bardoul (born 16 June 1987) 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 ...

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 who currently plays as a loose forward for the Coca-Cola Red Sparks in the

Top Challenge League The Top Challenge League was a professional rugby union competition in Japan. It was the second-highest level of rugby competition in the country and is a companies league; all the teams are owned by major companies and the players are generally ...

. Despite a long and illustrious career Johan still maintains a desire to represent Te Awamutu Sports as the pinnacle of Waikato club rugby

Career

Bardoul started out his senior career with , however a lack of game time saw him join the Bay of Plenty Steamers in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

. The Steamers were relegated from the ITM Cup Premier Division in 2013 and then finished bottom of the Championship the following year, however Bardoul's own personal performances were strong. He was called up to the Chiefs wider training group towards the end of the

2013 Super Rugby season The 2013 Super Rugby season was the third season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The tournament was won by the Chiefs, who defeated the Canberra-based Brum ...

to cover for the injured

Michael Leitch is a Japanese rugby union player who plays in the back row for the Toshiba Brave Lupus in Japan Rugby League One and captains the Japan national team. Leitch was born in New Zealand and moved to Japan as a teenager. Early life Leitch was ...

and won a full-time contract in 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardoul, Johan 1987 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Bay of Plenty rugby union players Waikato rugby union players Chiefs (rugby union) players Shizuoka Blue Revs players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate rugby union players in Japan Coca-Cola Red Sparks players Western Force players Rugby union players from Waikato People from Te Awamutu