James David O'Connor (born 5 July 1990), often referred to his initials JOC, is an Australian professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who currently plays as a back with the

Super Rugby Pacific Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

team the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

. Known for his versatility on the field, he has played multiple positions in the backline, including

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

and fullback. However O'Connor's primary position is at

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� ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. He made his debut with the

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

-based

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

team, the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competitio ...

, and has since played for two other Super Rugby teams (

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels were an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria that competed in the Super Rugby competition. The Rebels made their debut in SANZAAR, SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. T ...

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...

). O'Connor has also played domestically with English teams

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

and

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Its team play in Premiership Rugby, and have been in England's top division of rugby union continuously since 1995. Originally founded in 1861 as ...

, as well as French team

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

. Making his international debut at 18-years-old for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, O'Connor has earned over sixty caps for the Wallabies, and scored more than 270 points. O'Connor has competed at two

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

s and was part of

's third-place finish in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Early life

O'Connor was born in Australia on the Gold Coast. He lived in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

for five years as a child, attending Rutherford Primary School, until the age of eleven when he returned to Australia with his family. O'Connor grew up playing rugby league and earned a scholarship from the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

. He eventually became a boarder at Nudgee College in Brisbane's northern suburbs. In 2006 O'Connor suffered a ruptured spleen, but went on to be part of the Australian Schools representative team that played against England, Samoa and New Zealand in 2007. O'Connor's parents are from New Zealand, and his maternal grandparents from South Africa. This, along with his Australian birth, meant he was eligible for all three Tri Nations teams. However, his decision to play for the Wallabies, and debut in 2008, meant he became ineligible to play for the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

. He also played for the

Australian Sevens The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and on ...

in 2008.

Career

O'Connor became the youngest ever

debutant at the age of 17, and the second youngest Wallaby in Australian rugby history at the age of 18.

Super Rugby career

2008–2013: Early years

O'Connor joined the

Force In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...

in 2008, and came off the bench for his first Super 14 cap in a match against the Reds in Week 10 of the 2008 season. He completed the season's final three matches running on at inside centre. Later that year he made his

n debut, when he came off the bench as replacement fullback against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

,. He played Italy again in June 2009 scoring three tries to help Australia to a 31–8 win. In 2009, O'Connor was the Western Force 'Rookie of the Year' award and also won the Wallabies 'Rookie of the Year'. In 2012 O'Connor commenced a two-year contract with the

. His teammates included

Nic Stirzaker Nic Stirzaker (born 8 March 1991) is a former Australian rugby union footballer. His regular playing position is scrum-half and most recently played for the Montauban in the Pro D2. Prior to that he represented the Rebels in Super Rugby and M ...

, fullback

Kurtley Beale Kurtley James Beale (born 6 January 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union representative player who has made over 90 national representative appearances in a ten-year playing career at the world-class level. He is of Aboriginal desce ...

, centre Mitch Inman, and English international

Danny Cipriani Danny Cipriani (; born 2 November 1987) is an English former professional rugby union player. He most recently played for Premiership Rugby side Bath and previously played for Gloucester, Sale Sharks and Wasps in the Premiership and Melbourn ...

. He played at fly-half for the Wallabies in three Tests against the Lions and was included in a five-man leadership group for the team. After continued ill-discipline off the field, the Rebels withdrew from contract extension negotiations at the end of the

2013 Super Rugby season The 2013 Super Rugby season was the third season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The tournament was won by the Chiefs, who defeated the Canberra-based Brumbi ...

and he was released by the franchise. Following a number of off-field indiscretions on O'Connor's part and a drunken incident at Perth Airport, O'Connor's ARU top-up contract was torn up and was suspended from the remainder of the test season. Following this low, O'Connor was in talks with the Western Force and the Queensland Reds however, nothing eventuated and O'Connor was forced to ply his trade offshore.

First stint with Queensland

In 2015, he returned to Super Rugby in a bid to make the Wallabies Rugby World Cup 2015 squad by playing for the

. O'Connor produced solid performances and was arguably one of the higher performers for a poor Queensland outfit, being shifted between fullback, flyhalf and wing in his first appearances before locking down the Red 15 jersey in the last rounds of the season. Although a part of Wallabies coach

Michael Cheika Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian professional rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is head coach of Leicester Tigers in England's Premiership Rugby. Cheika was the coach of the Australia r ...

's squads for Wallabies logistics camps throughout the course of the year, O'Connor was not included in the first extended 40-man and subsequently did not feature in any of the squads to follow, including the 2015 Rugby World Cup squad. O'Connor was announced to be part of Brisbane City's squad for their NRC title-defending campaign. On 13 October, the QRU and Queensland Reds announced that O'Connor would be released from his contract effective immediately, meaning he would not play the 2016 Super Rugby season for the Reds and finish his 2-year contract. O'Connor's release also meant the end of a potential appearance for Brisbane City in the domestic NRC had he sufficiently recovered to play.

2019–2024: Resurgence with Queensland

In July 2019, O'Connor signed a 2-year deal with the Queensland Reds and Rugby Australia under what was understood to be strict behavioural clauses. He quickly made his way back into the Australian team for Australia's 47–26 win over New Zealand in Perth, and was subsequently selected in Australia's World Cup squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. In 2021, O'Connor was announced as captain of the Queensland Reds for the Super Rugby AU season, stepping in for the injured Liam Wright. The Reds went on to have an undefeated season under his leadership (as Wright captained their only loss), including winning the Super Rugby AU title in a home final at Suncorp Stadium. He served as co-captain with Liam Wright for the remainder of the 2021 season, including during their

Super Rugby Trans-Tasman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman (known as Harvey Norman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in Australia and Sky (New Zealand), Sky Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in New Zealand) was a professional men's rugby union club competition in Australia and New Zealand. It fea ...

campaign. In 2022, O'Connor relinquished the captaincy, stating that he had bitten off too much which caused him to burn out.

2025: Move to New Zealand

At the end of the 2024 Reds season, O'Connor, whom had signed a one-year contract extension with the Reds at the end of 2023, had played an insignificant part of the season for the team. Playing just three

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

matches, all as a substitute, O'Connor rejected another contract offer. Following his release, O'Connor was heavily linked with

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

-based team the

in early October 2024. On 4 October 2024, it was revealed that the

had signed O'Connor for the 2025 season. Although labelled a 'shock' move in some publications, O'Connor was linked with New Zealand Super Rugby franchise, the Chiefs in 2020/21. However, this move was vetoed by

Rugby Australia Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It is a ...

(RA). O'Connor also has New Zealander-Australian parents and holds a

New Zealand passport New Zealand passports () are Passport, passports issued to New Zealand nationality law, New Zealand citizens for the purpose of international travel by the Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), Department of Internal Affairs. New Zealan ...

Career in Europe

2013–2014: Sojourn in Europe

On 28 October 2013, O'Connor indicated that he was en route to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to play rugby for "a few months". He was signed by

in October 2013 until the end of the 2013–14 season. He made his debut against

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The club plays in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby union. It was formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. ...

on 3 November and set up the only try that day. He claimed his first try for the club against

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

on 4 January 2014, in a match ending 22–9 to the Exiles with O'Connor scoring all 22 points.

2015–2019: Return to Europe

In 2015, after failing to make the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

squad with the , O'Connor signed with

, joining former Super Rugby and Wallabies teammates

Matt Giteau Matthew James Giteau (born 29 September 1982) is an Australian rugby union professional player who plays for the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR). Giteau plays as a Rugby union positions#Utility players, utility back. His usual posi ...

Drew Mitchell Drew Alan Mitchell (born 26 March 1984) is a former Australian rugby union professional player. He played on the wing or as fullback. Up to the 2006 season he played for the Queensland Reds. He played for the Western Force for the 2007–09 Su ...

and

Quade Cooper Quade Santini Cooper (born 5 April 1988) is a professional rugby union player and occasional boxing, boxer. Although born in New Zealand, he has represented Australia national rugby union team, Australia in rugby at international level. He curre ...

. After allegations of cocaine use and

decided not to renew his contract and thus he left the club at the ending of the season. In 2017 O'Connor signed with English Premiership club

shortly before the 2017–18 season. After playing 31 games over 2 years, Sale Sharks agreed to a contract release, allowing him to pursue him ambition to play for Australia at the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

Style of play

O'Connor is a very versatile player, being able to play anywhere in the back line as a

, full-back or

and is usually described as a utility back. When asked about his preferred position in 2009, he said, "I feel more comfortable at 12 as a second ball player. I also like 15. You definitely get a lot of space. I just want to get on the field whether it is 10, 12 or 15." He is also an accurate goal-kicker.

Off-field

Controversies

O'Connor has been involved in a number of off-field controversies, attracting criticism from senior members of the Wallabies. In September 2013, he was stood down from the Wallabies following an incident in which he was removed from Perth airport by Australian Federal Police. As a result, O'Connor missed the final two matches of the 2013 Rugby Championship and was released from his Wallabies contract by the Australian Rugby Union. In February 2017 O'Connor was arrested together with former All Blacks player,

Ali Williams Alexander James Williams (born 30 April 1981) is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player who played as a lock most notably for Super Rugby club Blues and the New Zealand national team. Williams spent almost all of his playing car ...

, in Paris on suspicion of attempting to buy

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

Media

O'Connor was a participant in the second season of reality competition series '' Australia's Greatest Athlete''.

Career statistics

Domestic

References

External links

*
James O'Connor
at

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, James Australia international rugby union players Australian people of Irish descent Australian people of New Zealand descent Australian people of Dutch descent Australian people of South African descent Sportspeople of South African descent Australian rugby union players Living people Te Atatu Roosters players Melbourne Rebels players Rugby union players from the Gold Coast, Queensland Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks Western Force players London Irish players RC Toulon players Queensland Reds players Australian expatriate rugby union players in England Australian expatriate rugby union players in France 1990 births Male rugby sevens players Sale Sharks players Barbarian F.C. players 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2019 Rugby World Cup players West Harbour RFC players People educated at St Joseph's College, Nudgee Crusaders (rugby union) players 21st-century Australian sportsmen