Ollie Sapsford (born 7 October 1995) is a 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 currently plays as a midfield back or

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

for the Brumbies in

Super Rugby 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 ...

. In New Zealand, he most recently played for in the National Provincial Championship. Born in New Zealand, he represents Australia at international level, being eligible for that country on ancestry grounds.

Early life and career

Sapsford hails from Ashburton in the

Canterbury Region Canterbury ( mi, Waitaha) is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of , making it the largest region in the country by area. It is home to a population of The region in its current fo ...

on the east coast of

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 ...

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. He attended

Ashburton College Ashburton College is a state coeducational secondary school located in Ashburton, New Zealand. It opened in 1965 following the merger of two Ashburton secondary schools: Ashburton High School and Hakatere College, and moved to its current site ...

and played age grade rugby for

Mid Canterbury Mid Canterbury (also spelt Mid-Canterbury and mid-Canterbury) is a traditional, semi-official subregion of New Zealand's Canterbury Region extending inland from the Pacific coast to the Southern Alps. It is one of four traditional sub-regions of C ...

up to Under 16 level. He didn't play 1st XV rugby at school. Sapsford left school at the age of 16 and started a building apprenticeship. After finishing his apprenticeship, he left for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

to work on a farm for a year. While there, he played

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

at club level, picking up skills that proved to be helpful in the next phases of his rugby career. After his return to New Zealand, he started playing

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

again and represented Mid Canterbury in the

Heartland Championship The Heartland Championship competition, known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship, is a domestic rugby union competition in New Zealand. It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the countr ...

in 2016. Following Sapsford's season playing for Mid Canterbury, he was offered a Wellington Rugby Academy contract and played two seasons for the Wellington Development team. Early 2019, Sapsford moved to Hawke's Bay where he played for Taradale Rugby & Sports in the province's club rugby competition.

Senior career

On 4 August 2019, Sapsford was named in the squad for the

2019 Mitre 10 Cup The 2019 Mitre 10 Cup season was the fourteenth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 8, when Southland hosted Northland. It involved the top fourtee ...

season. He made his debut for the Magpies on 11 August 2019 against and scored his first try for the province on 28 September 2019 in their game against . In December 2019, Sapsford also represented Hawke's Bay at the Central Region Sevens Tournament and the

New Zealand National Rugby Sevens Tournament The National Sevens is a rugby sevens tournament for New Zealand provincial teams. It is held annually and features a men's event and a women's event. The best teams in the country compete over two days for the respective men's and women's titles. ...

. Sapsford was again named in the Hawke's Bay squad for the 2020 and the 2021 season. During the

2020 Mitre 10 Cup The 2020 Mitre 10 Cup season was the fifteenth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on September 11, when North Harbour hosted Canterbury. It involved the top ...

season, Sapsford helped the Magpies win the

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 ...

, successfully defend the Shield three times and win the Mitre 10 Cup Championship, thus securing a well-deserved promotion to the Premiership division. The Magpies held on to the Shield during the entire

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 hosted Counties Manukau. It involved the top f ...

season – winning all six Ranfurly Shield defences – and finished the regular season at the top of the Premiership table. They missed out on a spot in the Premiership Final after a 27 – 33 semi-final loss to . In the regular season game against on 30 October 2021, Sapsford scored a hat-trick in an eye-catching performance. From 2017 to 2019, Sapsford played several games for the Development team. However, it was eventually an

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 ...

franchise that offered him a contract. On 3 November 2021, the announced that they had signed Sapsford on a two-year deal. He made his Super Rugby debut for his new team on 20 February 2022 against the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...

. Sapsford scored his first Super Rugby try for the Brumbies on 2 June 2023 against the . On 13 June 2023, the Brumbies announced that Sapsford had re-signed with the franchise for another season.

International career

Following an impressive performance for the Hawke's Bay Sevens team in December 2019, Sapsford was called up to train with the All Blacks Sevens Development squad. In February 2020, he was one of the newly contracted players who were added to the All Blacks Sevens team that prepared for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. One month later, World Rugby postponed all remaining tournaments of the

2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series The 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 21st annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999–2000. In March 2020, World Rugby postponed all rem ...

due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and cancelled them altogether on 30 June 2020. The 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021. Sapsford was among the All Blacks Sevens players contracted for 2021 and was named among the non-travelling reserves for the men's rugby sevens tournament at the

. Again due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the All Blacks Sevens did not compete at the only two tournaments of the

2021 World Rugby Sevens Series The 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series was the 22nd annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The World Rugby Sevens Series, Sevens Series has been run by World Rugby since 1999. Due to Impact of the COVID-19 pa ...

. All in all, despite being part of the 2020 and 2021 All Blacks Sevens squad, Sapsford only had the opportunity to play for the team in warm-up matches against the Australian Sevens team during the Trans-Tasman Sevens tournament in May 2021. On 5 July 2023, Sapsford was named in the Australia A squad for a one-off match against

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. He qualifies for Australia on ancestry grounds via his mother. He made his debut for Australia A on 14 July 2023, coming onto the field in the 56th minute of the game. Australia lost the game to Tonga 21–27.

Reference list

External links

NZ Rugby History profileAll Rugby profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sapsford, Olli 1995 births Living people People educated at Ashburton College New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand male rugby sevens players Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Hawke's Bay rugby union players ACT Brumbies players