Tim Fairbrother (born 12 March 1982 in
Upper Hutt,
New Zealand) is a
rugby union player, his position is
tighthead prop
In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...
.
Fairbrother featured through the
New Zealand rugby junior representative team setup and made his first class debut for local Province
Wellington at just 19. Two years later he was called up to play for Regional side the
Hurricanes in the then
Super 14
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 ...
. Fairbrother played for the
Hurricanes for seven years but was plagued by injury, including missing almost the entire 2007 Super Rugby season, and was unable to break into the
All Blacks squad.
In 2009 Fairbrother left New Zealand for Australia, signing for the
Western Force on a two-year contract. Tim is qualified to play for
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 ...
(and
England) through his grandparents but was not selected by the Wallabies coaches and, feeling he had "
ivenit
isbest crack", decided to move on again joining
Harlequins.
Fairbrother was the most experienced front row player at
Harlequins. He came off the bench in the first round of the 2011–12
Aviva Premiership
Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
and proceeded to start in the following 5 games, but his season was interrupted by injury twice and he missed the last three months the season.
Following the first round of the 2012–13 season Harlequins announced that the club had agreed to release Fairbrother from his contract to allow him to return to New Zealand.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairbrother, Tim
1982 births
Harlequin F.C. players
Living people
Sportspeople from Upper Hutt
New Zealand rugby union players
Hurricanes (rugby union) players
Wellington rugby union players
Western Force players
Rugby union props
New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Australia
New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in England
Rugby union players from the Wellington Region