John Kahukura Raymond Timu (born 8 May 1969) is a New Zealand former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and

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 ...

footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s who achieved international selection 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 ...

in both rugby codes, appearing in 26 tests 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 ...

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and nine for the Kiwis in

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

. Timu's usual position was in league and in union he would play at full-back or on the wing.

Rugby union

High school

John Timu attended Lindisfarne College in Hastings and played rugby for their first XV where he scored 92 tries in 55 games between 1985 and 1987. After finishing school, he moved to Dunedin to attend the University of Otago.

Otago

John Timu played representative rugby union for

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, including playing for the 1991 team that won the first division championship. He also played in the 1993 Otago team that defeated the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

. He scored one try in the 37-24 result. John Timu was part of a backline for Otago that included

Paul Cooke Paul Cooke (born 17 April 1981) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, and rugby league, and rugby union Coach (sports), coach of the 2010s. He played at representative level for Eng ...

, Marc Ellis, Jeff Wilson and John Leslie.

New Zealand Maori

John Timu played for the New Zealand Maori rugby team from 1988 to 1994 scoring seven tries for them.

All Blacks

John Timu was first selected for the All Blacks on their 1989 tour to Europe to replace an injured John Kirwan. He played for New Zealand in the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

scoring two tries at fullback against a very physical Canadian side in the quarterfinals. Also in 1991 Timu was awarded the

Tom French Cup In rugby union, the Tom French Cup is an honour awarded by New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) to the Tom French Memorial Māori player of the year. The cup has been awarded annually since 1949, when it was donated to the New Zealand Māori coach To ...

as Māori player of the year. In the

1992 South Africa vs New Zealand rugby union match In 1992, the South Africa Springboks played a rugby union test match against the New Zealand All Blacks, which later became known as the Return Test. The match was played at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on 15 August 1992. It was named as t ...

he played for the All Blacks, scoring a try. He was then selected to go on the

1993 New Zealand rugby union tour of Britain The 1993 New Zealand rugby union tour of Britain was a series of thirteen matches played by the New Zealand national rugby union team (the All Blacks) in England, Scotland and Wales from October to December 1993. Twelve of the matches took place ...

Rugby league

John Timu commenced his professional

career in 1995 with the newly re-branded

Sydney Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

club. In his first season, he was selected to play for the New Zealand national team in the second and third matches of the

1995 Trans-Tasman Test series The 1995 Trans-Tasman Test series was an international rugby league, three test series played in Australia between the Australian Kangaroos and New Zealand national rugby league team. As the series was played in the middle of the 1995 ARL season an ...

. Timu played in the centres for the Bulldogs in their victory in the 1995 Winfield Cup Grand Final. He was selected for New Zealand's 1995 Rugby League World Cup squad but didn't play any games due to injury. During the

1996 Great Britain Lions tour The 1996 Great Britain Lions tour was a rugby league tour by the Great Britain team which took place from September to November 1996. The tour included games in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand, however due to the ongoing Super League war an ...

Timu was selected to play for New Zealand at centre in all three

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

, scoring two tries in the first. Timu was selected to play for New Zealand at centre in the

1997 Anzac Test The 1997 ANZAC test was the first annual Anzac test played between Australia and New Zealand. Conceived by the rebel Super League competition, any players aligned with the Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission (A ...

. After the 1997 Super League season he left the Bulldogs to play in England. Timu played for the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

at in the 1999 Challenge Cup Final. There were rumours that after finishing his contract with the London Broncos, John Timu would return to play rugby for Otago but this did not happen.

References

External links

*
Canterbury Bulldogs profileTimu to quit rugby leagueJohn Timu at rugbymuseum.co.nz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timu, John 1969 births Living people Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Dual-code rugby internationals London Broncos players New Zealand international rugby union players New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players Otago rugby union players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Dannevirke Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union players from Dannevirke Rugby union wings University of Otago alumni