William Robert Gordon (born 7 August 1965) is a former New Zealand

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. A loose forward, where he could play either blind side flanker or No. 8. Gordon represented

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 ...

and

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

at a provincial level. He was a member of the New Zealand national side, 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 ...

, in 1990 on the tour on France, during which he played three matches but no tests. He also appeared in a New Zealand XV in 1991 playing unofficial tests against Russia, an Australian XV and Romania. He also holds the New Zealand and World records for the most tries (5) scored by a forward in a national championship rugby match. This outstanding and unique world record still stands today. Between 1997 and 1999, when working and playing rugby for Toshiba in Tokyo, Japan he played 17 test matches for

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, including three test matches at the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...

References

1965 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in Japan New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Japan Japan international rugby union players Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo players People from Te Awamutu Rugby union players from Waikato People educated at Te Awamutu College {{Japan-rugbyunion-bio-stub