 Pelesasa in 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth name | Junior Pelesasa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 17 October 1980 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 94 kg (14 st 11 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Onehunga High School Nudgee College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Junior Pelesasa (born 17 October 1980 in New Zealand) is an Australian rugby union footballer who currently plays for Agen. He plays as a centre.
Pelesasa moved to Australia from New Zealand at the age of 16. He has represented Australia Schoolboys, Australia Under 21s and Australia A. He spent two years playing for the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team after which he left Rugby league and joined Rugby Union playing for the Queensland provincial side before being drafted into the Queensland Reds Super 12 side where he played 33 matches for them. In 2006 he moved to a new Super Rugby franchise known as the Western Force. He played 5 matches for his new team during the 2006 season in which they finished last in the 2006 Super 14 competition.
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 Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, building on competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to split into three, the reformed competition in 2021 only included teams from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.
The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team 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 club competitions in Queensland. With the introduction of the professional Super 12 competition they moved to a model where players are contracted to the Reds through the Queensland Rugby Union rather than selected on the basis of club form.
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. Following their axing they played in the National Rugby Championship in 2018 and 2019, replacing the Perth Spirit, and Global Rapid Rugby from 2018 to 2020, an Indo-Pacific competition organised by Andrew Forrest.
Wendell Jermaine Sailor is an Australian former professional rugby footballer who represented his country in both rugby league and rugby union – a dual code international.
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Rugby union in Australia has a history of organised competition dating back to the late 1860s. Although traditionally most popular in Australia's rugby football strongholds of New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, it is played throughout the nation.
Ryan Cross is a former Rugby Union footballer for Racing Metro 92 after signing from USA Perpignan in the French Top 14. He previously played for the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition, the Western Force and the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby and the Australia national rugby union team.
Tai McIsaac is an Australian rugby union football coach, and a former professional player. He is currently the head coach of the Perth Spirit team in Australia's National Rugby Championship. McIsaac played as a hooker for the Western Force and Queensland Reds in the Super Rugby competition before retiring from playing in 2009.
Hugh McMeniman is an Australian retired professional rugby union footballer. He represented Australia in 22 tests and played for the Queensland Reds and Western Force in Super Rugby as well as for Kubota Spears and Honda Heat in Japan. His favoured position was blindside flanker but he also played as a lock.
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Rugby union in Victoria describes the sport of rugby union being played and watched in the state of Victoria in Australia. The code was first introduced some time between the 1850s and 1880s but remained a minor sport played primarily in the private schools and amongst interstate expats. This has changed, particularly since the professionalisation of the game in the mid 1990s.
Rugby union in Queensland has traditionally been one of the most popular professional and recreational team sports in the state. Rugby union was introduced in the British colony's capital Brisbane in 1876. Initially it struggled to gain a foothold due to the popularity of Australian rules there until it got its break in 1882 with the first inter-colonial matches against New South Wales, and the formation of the Northern Rugby Union. Between 1885 and 1887 it became the dominant code after the leading schools association decided to play it exclusively and after 1890 spread virtually unopposed throughout the colony.
James David O'Connor is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who currently plays for Queensland Reds in Super Rugby. He made his international debut for Australia in 2008 at the age of eighteen. He has played for the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby. In 2013 he played for English Premiership side London Irish, and in the 2014–15 season he moved to France to play in the Top 14 competition for Toulon. His regular playing positions are Fly-half, Centre, Fullback and Wing.
The Super Rugby competition in rugby union, including teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands and, in the past, from Argentina, Japan and South Africa, is based on a "franchise" system of teams. The original member countries – Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – all have several regional franchises, while the expansion countries – Argentina, Fiji, Japan and the Pacific Islands – have/had one franchise each. The article covers specific detail as to the areas covered by each Super Rugby team. Bold denotes stadiums that are current primary stadiums for the franchises.
Rugby union has a long history in Australia, with the first club being formed in 1863 at Sydney University. Today it holds tier one status with World Rugby and has over 82,000 players nationwide.
Jonah Placid is an Australian rugby union player who currently plays as a fullback for the Rebels in Super Rugby. Domestically, he plays for Easts in the Queensland Premier Rugby tournament.
Curtis Rona is a former Australian international rugby union footballer who recently played for London Irish in the English Premiership. He now plays for Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Sagamihara Dynaboars.
Henry Taefu is a Samoan professional Rugby Union player. He currently plays for North Harbour in the Bunnings NPC and Moana Pasifika in the Super Rugby Pacific, having previously played for the Western Force in Australia’s Super Rugby AU. His playing position is inside centre.
Super Rugby Women's is an annual professional women's rugby union club competition organised by Rugby Australia. It is contested by five clubs from Australia and one club from Fiji, who play a single series of round-robin matches to determine the four participants of a single-elimination tournament. The competition replaced the representative National Women's Championship with five teams owned by the Australian Super Rugby franchises, and began play in the 2018 season as an amateur league known as the Super W. The 2022 season saw the addition of a team from Fiji, and the introduction of salaries for players. The league adopted its current name in the 2024 season. Fijiana Drua are the current champions, while the New South Wales Waratahs have won the most championships (4).
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