Thomas Waldrom (born 28 April 1983) 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 played for

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played its home m ...

in the English Premiership and represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

from 2012 to 2013. Born in Lower Hutt,

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 ...

, he qualified for England through his grandmother, winning four caps. A number 8, Waldrom's early career was spent with his native Wellington provincial team, and the Hurricanes in Super Rugby. Following one season with the Crusaders, he moved to England in 2010 to play for Leicester Tigers. Waldrom made his debut against in 2012. He spent four seasons with the Tigers, winning the 2013 Premiership. Nicknamed "Thomas the Tank" due to his size and strength, he became a stalwart in the Chiefs team after moving to Exeter in 2014. They reached the 2016 Premiership final for the first time, before winning the 2017 Premiership.

In New Zealand

Provinces

Waldrom made his

Wellington Lions The Wellington Rugby Football Union (known as the Wellington Lions for competition reasons) are a New Zealand governing body of rugby union in the New Zealand province of Wellington Region. The main stadium is Sky Stadium (formerly named West ...

provincial debut in 2001 against Otago. He went on to play 80 games for Wellington at provincial level before moving to the Hawke's Bay for the 2009 season. Waldrom had become something of a fan favourite at

McLean Park McLean Park is a sports ground in Napier, New Zealand. The two main sports played at the ground are cricket and rugby union. It is one of the largest cricket grounds in New Zealand. McLean Park is a sports ground of international standards ...

with his high work rate and powerful runs with the ball. In 2009 he helped the Magpies to a semi final, scoring 4 tries along the way.

Super Rugby

Waldrom made his Super Rugby debut in 2004 for 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 ...

against the Stormers. He went on to play 30 caps for the Hurricanes before signing with the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

for the 2009 season, where he would be a regular for one season.

Move to England

Leicester Tigers

On 23 February 2010 English Champions Leicester Tigers announced the signing of Waldrom and that he would join the team at the conclusion of the 2010 Super Rugby season. Waldrom instantly became a firm favourite at Welford Road and was given the nickname "Thomas the tank engine", due to his size and rampaging runs to which he has taken to giving an arm gesture as if blowing a train engines horn when scoring a try. Throughout his time at the Tigers, he played 103 matches and scored 17 tries. Having won his first Premiership title with the team in 2013, he was not offered a new contract past 2014.

Exeter Chiefs

2014-15

On 20 January 2014

confirmed the signing of Waldrom to a 3-year contract. Waldrom marked his first Aviva Premiership appearance for Exeter with 2 tries in an Exeter Chiefs record Premiership winning margin. Waldrom scored a remarkable 16 tries during the 2014-15 season to end as the League's top try scorer as Exeter narrowly missed out on a play-off spot. This made him the first forward since

Neil Back Neil Antony Back MBE (born 16 January 1969) is a former international rugby union footballer for England and the British & Irish Lions who also played for Nottingham RFC, Leicester Tigers, and captained both England and Leicester during his ...

in the 1998-99 season to achieve this feat. He also helped Exeter's charge to the Challenge Cup Semi-Final that year.

2015-16

In December, Waldrom scored his first Premiership

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in Exeter's 27-41 away win at

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

. He would score another hat-trick against

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

as he finished as top try scorer for a second year in a row in the Premiership. Exeter. Waldrom missed Exeter's first Premiership Final, a 28-20 loss to Saracens, due to a knee injury sustained against Wasps in the Semi-Final. Waldrom scored two tries in Exeter's first Champions Cup Quarter-Final against Wasps. However, this was not enough to prevent Wasps securing a last-minute win. Despite his good form, Waldrom missed out on selection for Eddie Jones' first England squad.

2016-17

In the 2016-17 season Waldrom scored 9 tries in 20 appearances as Exeter finished in second position in the Aviva Premiership regular season. In the play-offs, Waldrom helped Exeter beat Saracens 18-16 to reach the final for a second year in a row, this time playing League toppers and 5 time Premiership champions Wasps. Exeter won 20-23 aet to be crowned champions of England for the first time.

2017-18

Due to the emergence of Sam Simmonds, Waldron's playing time has been limited in the 2017-18 season. This has not stopped Waldrom scoring 2 tries to bring his total to 40 Exeter Premiership tries. On 4 February 2018, Waldrom confirmed that he would be returning to his native New Zealand at the end of the 2017-18 season, after four seasons at the Chiefs. He will rejoin his old province

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

for the 2018

Mitre 10 Cup The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in t ...

England

Having discovered he was eligible to play for England in March 2011, Waldrom was named in the 45-man England training squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Waldrom was initially cut from the 30-man squad, but an injury to prop

Andrew Sheridan Andrew John Sheridan (born 1 November 1979 in Petts Wood, Bromley, England) is a retired English rugby union player who played as a loosehead prop. Sheridan is tall, which is unusually tall for a prop, and weighs . He is known for his great ...

meant he was called in as an injury replacement during the World Cup final pool stages. Waldrom did not make an appearance for England until the next year. He was selected as part of England's squad for their 2012 tour of South Africa. Having scored two tries in a mid-week match against SA Barbarians South, he was selected on the bench for the second test, coming on to replace Ben Morgan in the second-half. His first Test start came the next week in England's 14-14 third test draw. Waldrom's first Six Nations Championship appearance came in England's away win against Ireland in 2013. Since Eddie Jones became England's coach in 2015, Waldrom has not been selected for the international squad.

Club Statistics

Personal life

Born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, Thomas the younger brother of former All Black Scott Waldrom. As a teenager, Waldrom specialised in shot put, discus and

hammer throwing The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

, setting several school and club records in these sports. The younger brother of former All Black Scott Waldrom, he was overlooked by the All Blacks selectors while playing in New Zealand, and after making his move to England, had aspirations of eventually playing for the England national team. Under

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international ru ...

(IRB) regulations, he would not be eligible for England until being resident in the country for three years. In March 2011 Waldrom discovered his maternal grandmother was born in England, immediately making him eligible for selection to the

National Team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waldrom, Thomas Living people 1983 births New Zealand rugby union players Māori All Blacks players Leicester Tigers players Exeter Chiefs players England international rugby union players Wellington rugby union players Crusaders (rugby union) players Hurricanes (rugby union) players Hawke's Bay rugby union players Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Rugby union players from Lower Hutt New Zealand people of English descent