Robbie Abel (born 4 July 1989) is an Australian rugby union coach and former professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

player who currently coaches forwards for the Utah Warriors in

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Of ...

. He previously played at

hooker Hooker may refer to: People * Hooker (surname) Places Antarctica * Mount Hooker (Antarctica) * Cape Hooker (Antarctica) * Cape Hooker (South Shetland Islands) New Zealand * Hooker River * Mount Hooker (New Zealand) in the Southern Alps * Hoo ...

for NSW,

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

and for the Brumbies in

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 previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

. The

Māori All Blacks The Māori All Blacks, previously called the New Zealand Maori, New Zealand Maoris and New Zealand Natives, are a rugby union team from New Zealand. They are a representative team of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and a prerequisite for playing ...

, and the Canberra Vikings and Perth Spirit, and also played for

Northland Northland may refer to: Corporations * Northland Organic Foods Corporation, headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota * Northland Resources, a mining business * Northland Communications, an American cable television, telephone and internet service ...

and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

in the ITM Cup.

Career

Robbie Abel was selected for the Australia 'A' Schools team in 2007, after moving to St Edmund's College, Canberra from Griffith NSW in 2006. He was a part of the Brumbies Academy from 2007 till 2010, having a stint in New Zealand with

rugby in 2009. Abel took a two-year hiatus from rugby from 2010 till the end of 2012 to undertake a mission for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

. Upon completion of his duties he linked up with

Northland Rugby Union The Northland Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand; Northland is a Regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand that covers areas in the districts of Far North District, Far North, Kaipar ...

and the from 2012 till the end of 2013 spending 2 years playing between Canberra and Whangarei for the Brumbies Runners and the Taniwha in

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 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

's ITM Cup. He moved back to Western Australia to become a member of the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. F ...

playing squad ahead of the

2014 Super Rugby season The 2014 Super Rugby season is the fourth season of the 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as Asteron Life Super Rugby i ...

. Abel didn't make any senior appearances in 2014 but turned out for Perth Spirit in the inaugural National Rugby Championship later that year scoring 5 tries in 9 appearances, and he was named again in the Force squad for

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

. Abel then signed a contract with the Brumbies, joining the Canberra Vikings late in the 2015 season. In 2016 Abel made his Super Rugby debut for the Brumbies against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein. Abel featured in all games for the 2017 season and all games he was available for in 2018. In 2018 Abel took a contract to play with

in the

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 ...

competition. After a successful season with

which saw the team win the 2018 Premiership, losing just one game in the regular season, Abel was named in the

team to tour USA and South America.

References

Super Rugby statistics

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abel, Robbie 1989 births Australian rugby union players Australian people of Māori descent Northland rugby union players Perth Spirit players Canberra Vikings players ACT Brumbies players Auckland rugby union players Rugby union hookers Rugby union players from New South Wales Australian Latter Day Saints Living people Māori All Blacks players Melbourne Rebels players New South Wales Waratahs players People from Orange, New South Wales