Michael Stanley (born 29 December 1989, Auckland, New Zealand) 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 ...

-born, English raised, Samoan

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 ...

rugby player.

Career

Stanley started his senior career in England with Saracens as an academy player from the age of 14. He made his senior debut for Saracens versus Toulon as a centre under the tutelage of Eddie Jones. Stanley was just 18 when he faced a

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the List of dual-code rugby internationals#New ...

in his prime during that match. He represented England age groups at U16, U18 and U20's. He then moved to New Zealand in 2013 to live with (uncle) former Auckland rugby union player, Martin Stanley, to play with for legendary and family club: Ponsonby, his first season in Auckland saw him named in the Auckland ITM Cup training squad but due to a quad injury only managed to represent the Auckland Development a handful of times. After his time in Auckland Stanley made his way south joining Tana Umaga's Counties Manukau Steelers during the

2014 ITM Cup Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrele ...

. A long-term injury to first-choice first five-eighth Baden Kerr saw him earn game time and make seven appearances scoring 26 points in the process. Stanley was also involved with the Chiefs development squad in 2015 before signing a short-term deal with Ulster and moving to Belfast for the four remaining months of the season as injury cover.

International career

Stanley's first experience of international rugby came when he was named in the Samoan squad for the

2014 end-of-year rugby union tests The 2014 end-of-year rugby tests, also known as the 2014 autumn internationals in the Northern Hemisphere, were international rugby union matches predominantly played between visiting Southern Hemisphere countries and European nations. Brazil, Cana ...

and made his test debut on 8 November 2014 in a 24–13 defeat by in

Ascoli Piceno Ascoli Piceno (; la, Asculum; dialetto ascolano: Ascule) is a town and ''comune'' in the Marche region of Italy, capital of the province of the same name. Its population is around 46,000 but the urban area of the city has more than 93,000. Geo ...

. Stanley was selected in 2015 Pacific Nations Cup, playing and kicking superbly leading on to his selection for the Samoan 2015 Rugby World Cup squad, Stanley had to pull out of Samoa 2016 Pacific Nations Cup campaign due to yet another injury.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanley, Michael 1989 births Counties Manukau rugby union players Living people New Zealand rugby union players Samoa international rugby union players New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Auckland

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

2015 Rugby World Cup players