John Afoa

John Afoa
Full name Ioane Fitu Afoa
Date of birth (1983-09-16) 16 September 1983
Place of birth Auckland, New Zealand
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 119 kg (18 st 10 lb)
School St. Kentigern College
Papakura High School
Notable relative(s) James Afoa (brother)
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position Prop
New Zealand No. 1062
Amateur clubs
Years Club / team
Auckland University Rugby Club
Professional / senior clubs
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2014– Gloucester Rugby 54 (10)
correct as of 1 Apr 2015.
Provincial/State sides
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2002–2011
2011–2014
Auckland
Ulster
70
58
(5)
(15)
Super Rugby
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2004–2011 Blues 101 (15)
National team(s)
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2005–2011 New Zealand 36 (5)

Ioane Fitu "John" Afoa (born 16 September 1983) is a New Zealand professional Rugby union player. His position of choice is at prop. Afoa currently plays for Gloucester in the Aviva Premiership.

Personal life

Afoa was a student at Auckland's Papakura High School, then St. Kentigern College, where he played first XV rugby alongside fellow All Blacks Joe Rokocoko and Jerome Kaino.[1]

Career

Representative Rugby

Afoa has moved through a number of international representative sides. In 1999 he made the New Zealand U16 team, the youngest national representative team. Through 2000 and 2001 he played in the more senior New Zealand Schools' side. Moving steadily through the age grades, he was a member of the NZ U19 teams of 2002 and 2003.

In both 2003 and 2004, Afoa was part of the New Zealand Under 21 Rugby World Championship team.[1] The New Zealanders won the tournament both years. In 2003 Afoa was one of four kiwis named in the IRB's team of the tournament.

Provincial Rugby

Afoa played for Auckland between 2002 and 2011. He played for Ulster in the RaboDirect Pro 12

Super 14

Afoa played for the Blues and made his debut in 2004 against the Brumbies. He made 101 appearances with the team between 2004 and 2011.

All Blacks

In 2005 Afoa was selected for the All Blacks Tri-nations squad. Despite this he never took the field in that competition and didn't earn his first test cap until the end-of-year tour. In November 2005 he finally became the 1062nd All Black when he started against Ireland at Lansdowne Road.

In 2010, Afoa was experimented to be used at hooker. The same year against Wales, Afoa scored his first test try showing some great running for a Prop for a 30m Try.

Afoa's test career ended after the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He played 36 tests, 30 as a substitute.[1]

Gloucester Rugby

On 6 December 2013, Afoa officially joined Gloucester Rugby in the English Aviva Premiership on a four-year contract worth £400,000 per season. This made him one of the highest-paid players in the Premiership and the third highest-paid player in European rugby.[2][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Palenski, Ron (2014). The All Blackography: The indispensable guide to every All Black. Auckland, New Zealand: Upstart Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-927262-16-0.
  2. "All-Black tight-head prop John Afoa joins Gloucester". ESPN scrum. 6 December 2013.
  3. "John Afoa's lucrative deal". ESPN scrum. 9 December 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.