Michael Bent (born 25 April 1986 in

Hāwera Hāwera is the second-largest centre in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of . It is near the coast of the South Taranaki Bight. The origins of the town lie in a government military base that was established ...

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 ...

) is a New Zealand born rugby union player who can play as a tight or loosehead prop. He played for

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of ...

in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

and represented Ireland at international level. He has also represented Taranaki in the ITM Cup, and spent two seasons with the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

in Super Rugby. He made his debut for Ireland against South Africa in the 2012 autumn international series.

Domestic career

At the age of 23 Bent was selected for the

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth D ...

team as a versatile prop – playing both Tight and Loosehead positions. Bent made three pre-season appearances and five competition appearances in the 2011 Super 15 season for the Hurricanes. After playing his first games for the Hurricanes, Bent linked up with Taranaki in the

2011 ITM Cup The 2011 ITM Cup season was the sixth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on July 14, when Otago hosted North Harbour. It involved the top fourteen rugby uni ...

. Playing on both sides of the scrum, Bent was a key cog in Taranaki's third place ITM Cup finish and

Ranfurly Shield The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the Log o' Wood, is a trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First played for in 1904, the Shield is based on a challenge system. The holding union must defend the shield in challeng ...

winning season. After being used as nothing more than a bit part player for the

in 2012, Bent returned to

and played in every one of the side's 13 first-class matches. While he was used extensively as a loosehead prop in 2011, Bent showed his versatility by making the No 3 jersey his own in a campaign that saw

defend the

six times and win seven of their 10 regular season national provincial championship fixtures. He developed his game this season, improving his defence, mobility and ball carrying. As well as the player of the year, Bent was named the sportsman of the year - the players' player of the year - who best demonstrated excellence on and off the field. Surprisingly, and an anomaly of the awards, Bent was not named forward of the year by the selection panel made up of the Taranaki management team. Instead, that prize went to No 8 Blade Thomson.

Leinster and Ireland

In late October 2012 Bent arrived in Ireland to join

. He was immediately drafted into the

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

squad for their November Internationals. He qualifies to play for Ireland through his Irish grandmother, and made his debut against South Africa on 10 November 2012 at Lansdowne Road. Following a strong season in the Championship, Bent was named to his first Pro14 Dream Team at the conclusion of the 2020–21 season. In April 2021 Bent announced that he would retire after the

Pro14 Rainbow Cup The Pro14 Rainbow Cup (also known as the Guinness Pro14 Rainbow Cup for sponsorship reasons) was a professional rugby union end-of-season cup competition played in 2021 that consisted of two separate tournaments: the Rainbow Cup for twelve Europe ...

Return to New Zealand

As a 35 year-old, Bent played for

in the

2021 Bunnings NPC The 2021 Bunnings NPC season was the sixteenth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 6, when Manawatu (National Provincial Championship), Manawatu hos ...

and played for the Southern Rugby club. In July 2022, Bent was called on by the Ireland national rugby union team during the

2022 Ireland rugby union tour of New Zealand In July 2022, Ireland played a three-Test series against New Zealand as part of the 2022 mid-year rugby union internationals. Ireland also played two matches against the Māori All Blacks. This was Ireland's first tour since their tour to Austr ...

and played the last five minutes for them in the 30-24 victory over the

Māori All Blacks The Māori All Blacks, previously called the New Zealand Maori, New Zealand Maoris and New Zealand Natives, are a rugby union team from New Zealand. They are a representative team of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and a prerequisite for playing i ...

Honours

;Leinster * European Rugby Champions Cup (1):

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(6):

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 ...

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

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European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

(1):

;Individual *

Dream Team (1):

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

Hurricanes profileLeinster profilePro14 profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bent, Michael 1986 births Living people Dublin University Football Club players Hurricanes (rugby union) players Ireland international rugby union players Ireland Wolfhounds international rugby union players Irish rugby union players Leinster Rugby players New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union players from Hāwera Rugby union props Taranaki rugby union players