Ryan Shortland (born 27 January 1986 in Masterton, New Zealand) is a former

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 it ...

player who last played for the

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

in the Aviva Premiership. Before switching to rugby union, he previously played

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 11 ...

in the NRL.

Rugby league

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

heritage, Shortland was born in Masterton but grew up in Australia. Shortland started playing

for the

Coogee Randwick Wombats The Coogee Randwick Wombats are an Australian rugby league football team based in Coogee, New South Wales and Randwick, New South Wales a suburb of south-central Sydney and play in the South Sydney District Junior Rugby Football League. Notable ...

in Sydney. Shortland signed with the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

and was sent by the Storm to play in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fou ...

with the

Norths Devils The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They pl ...

. He played one

first grade First grade (also called Grade One, called ''Year 2'' in England or Primary 2 in Scotland) is the first grade in elementary school and the first school year after kindergarten. Children are usually 6–7 years old in this grade. Examples by ...

game for the club in Round 2 of 2007. A knee ligament injury playing for Brisbane Norths in the Queensland Cup ended Shortland's season soon after. Shortland signed a one-year contract with the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

for the 2008 season. He was limited to just five appearances in first grade, being stuck behind international centres

Brent Tate Brent Tate (born 3 March 1982) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a or er in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australia international and Queensland State of Origin representative, he played his club football in ...

and Jerome Ropati. As a result, he was not re-signed for the 2009 season.

Rugby union

After being released by the Warriors, Shortland set his sights on a career in

so he could stay in New Zealand. In late 2008 he played for the New Zealand Barbarians against 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 a warm up match before their Grand Slam tour. After talks with several rugby unions Shortland signed with the newly promoted Taieri in Otago and then made the Otago team for the 2009

Air New Zealand Cup The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. Shortland got off to a promising start for Otago in the

2009 Air New Zealand Cup The 2009 Air New Zealand Cup was the 33rd provincial rugby union competition, the fourth since the competition reconstruction in 2006, involving the top 14 provincial unions in New Zealand. It ran for 15 weeks from 30 July to 7 November. It was ...

, scoring 3 tries in 10 appearances, and was included in the Highlanders wider training group for the

2010 Super 14 season The 2010 Super 14 season kicked off in February 2010 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 29 May. The 2010 season was the fifth and last season of the expanded Super 14 format. The schedule, which covers 3½ months, feat ...

. However, like the rest of his team, Shortland struggled in the

2010 ITM Cup The 2010 ITM Cup season was the fifth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on July 29, when Taranaki hosted Northland. It involved the top fourteen rugby unio ...

, failing to score a try in 9 matches. After leaving Otago, Shortland moved to England, where he played with the

of the Aviva Premiership, having debuted in the 2011–12 season. He played three seasons with the Falcons, his last coming in 2013–14.

References

External links

NRL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shortland, Ryan 1986 births Living people Auckland rugby league team players Melbourne Storm players New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand Warriors players Newcastle Falcons players Norths Devils players Otago rugby union players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Masterton Rugby union wings Rugby union players from Masterton