James Gopperth (born 29 June 1983) is a New Zealand 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 it ...

player who plays for Leicester Tigers in

Premiership Rugby 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 ...

, England's top tier. His regular playing positions are Centre and

fly-half 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– ...

and he has played over 400 professional games in a 19-year career, scoring over 3,800 points. He has played professionally for

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 ...

, North Harbour, the

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& the Blues in his native New Zealand before moving to Europe in 2009 where he played for

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 Premiership Rugby and

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

before joining

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. ...

in 2015 where he played 156 games over 7 years. He joined Leicester in 2022.

Early life

Gopperth was born in New Plymouth. He grew up on a farm with a rugby-supportive father.

Club career

New Zealand

Gopperth first played rugby for

New Plymouth Boys' High School New Plymouth Boys' High School is a single-sex boys' state secondary school in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. The school currently caters for approximately 1300 students, including 210 boarders, on its site. The school often collabora ...

, before having his first break in the game and playing for the

Old Boys University Old Boys University are a New Zealand rugby union club, who were the 2015 winners of the Wellington Rugby Football Union's premier club rugby grade, the Jubilee Cup. They were the first holders of the Hardham Cup in 1939 and won it most recently ...

in the Wellington premier competition. Gopperth joined the Wellington Academy post High School in 2001 and after impressive displays for his club, Gopperth made his first-class debut for

in 2002. Then, in 2003 at the age of 20, Gopperth signed a first-team contract with

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 ...

. Gopperth went on to sign for the then Super 12 team

in 2005. Gopperth made a good start to his career with the

when he made 12 appearances in the 2005 Super 12 season. All of his appearances during that season came from starts and he scored 139 points including three tries. Gopperth finally got a chance to show what he could do in the 2005/2006 season, in the newly formed Super 14. He made seven starts during the season, but made in all 15 appearances during this season. He scored 86, with a further two tries and whilst playing 637 minutes. During the 2006/2007 season Gopperth impressed for his club

, although was unimpressive for his region the

. In Super Rugby, Gopperth got 66 points in 13 appearances, still nowhere near his opening season tally, but for

in the

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 ...

he got 121 points in just 10 games, mostly through the boot. In his final season for the

, Gopperth still could not reach his true form, only scoring 70 points in 12 games with a single try, but in the

he scored an overall haul of 147 points in 12 games. In 2008, Gopperth joined North Harbour and region Blues. During the 2008/2009 season Gopperth played 11 games and only started nine of them, but still managed to score 101 points with four tries. Then, Gopperth managed to rack up 90 points in 10 games for North Harbour in the

, where he added two tries to his tally.

Europe

In 2009, only a season after joining the Blues, Gopperth joined

on a three-year deal replacing

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

winner

Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, CBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scoring the w ...

. In his first season Gopperth made 22 appearances, scoring two tries and a massive haul of 219 points, making him the league's top scorer. Gopperth, made an appearance for

in the

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

, not scoring any points. Gopperth also ended the season as the top points scorer in the

Amlin Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception ...

scoring 74 points in seven appearances. In the 2010/2011 season Gopperth again finished top scorer in the Premiership. In March 2013 Gopperth was linked with a move to

to compete with Ian Madigan for the starting number ten position being vacated by Johnny Sexton's proposed move to Racing Metro in France. On 29 March 2013, Leinster confirmed that Gopperth had signed for the Irish province. In January 2015 Gopperth signed for

. During the 2016/17 season Gopperth won several awards, including three player of the year awards. He was named the Aviva Premiership player of the year, RPA Players' player of the year and Wasps' player of the year. He also won the golden boot for his 292 points scored during the same season, 102 points more than the next highest scorer, along with being named in the Premiership Dream Team, and winning the Citizen Try of the try Season award for his try against

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...

in round four. At 33 years 333 days, he also became the oldest try scorer in a Premiership final. Gopperth was announced as leaving Wasps on 2 February 2022, despite Wasps boss Lee Blackett confirming his destination as Leicester Tigers in February, Tigers did not confirm his signing until 12 May 2022.

International career

Gopperth has never played for his national team, 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, ...

, but has made two appearances for the second string team the

Junior All Blacks The All Blacks XV is the second national rugby union team of New Zealand, after the All Blacks. New Zealand's second national team has had numerous names in its history: Junior All Blacks, New Zealand XV, New Zealand A, New Zealand B, All Blacks ...

. His appearances were during the 2006

Pacific Nations Cup The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition held between three Pacific states: Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The 2019 edition of the tournament will also include the national teams of Canada, Japan and United States. First hel ...

, which the

won both tests, vs

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

and

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 ...

. Gopperth scored 26 and 21 points respectively for a total of 47 points in the two games; he scored three tries, with the remainder of his points coming from his kicking.

Personal life

Gopperth is married to Sarah Gopperth.

References

External links

ESPN ProfileLeinster Rugby Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gopperth, Jimmy 1983 births Living people People educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School Rugby union players from New Plymouth New Zealand rugby union players North Harbour rugby union players Wellington rugby union players Hurricanes (rugby union) players Blues (Super Rugby) players Newcastle Falcons players Leicester Tigers players Leinster Rugby players Wasps RFC players Rugby union fly-halves New Zealand expatriate rugby union players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Expatriate rugby union players in England Expatriate rugby union players in Ireland