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The Blues are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Auckland, who play in the Super Rugby competition. Like New Zealand's four other Super Rugby teams, the Blues were established by the NZRU in 1996. One of the most successful teams in Super Rugby history, the Blues won the competition in its first two seasons, 1996 and 1997, and again in 2003 and 2024. Additionally, the team were finalists in 1998 and 2022, and semi-finalists in 2007, 2011 and 2023. They won a Trans Tasman competition in 2021.
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Bradley Carnegie Thorn is a New Zealand Australian rugby union coach and former rugby league and rugby union footballer. Born in New Zealand, he represented Australia in rugby league and New Zealand in rugby union in a twenty-two year career as a player, starting at age nineteen and finishing at age forty-one. He was the head coach of the Australian Super Rugby Pacific team, the Queensland Reds. Thorn is their second longest-serving coach in history and their longest serving coach in the professional era.
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Jeffery Latu Toomaga-Allen is a rugby union footballer who previously played as a tighthead prop for Samoa, and for Ulster in the United Rugby Championship. He also previously played for Wellington Lions in the ITM Cup and the Hurricanes in Super Rugby. Toomaga-Allen has also played for New Zealand's international rugby team, the All Blacks, three times during his career. Toomaga-Allen is currently signed with the Queensland Reds until the end of 2025.
The 2012 Super Rugby final was played between the South African Sharks and the New Zealand Chiefs Super Rugby teams on 4 August 2012. It was the 17th final in the Southern Hemisphere's premier transnational club rugby competition's history and the second under the newly expanded 15-team format. The Chiefs had qualified second highest during the regular season, while the Sharks qualified as the sixth, and lowest, team. The Chiefs went straight to the semi-final, where they beat fellow New Zealand team the Crusaders. The Sharks travelled to Brisbane and beat the Queensland Reds in the qualifying final and then the Stormers back in South Africa in the semi-final. As the Chiefs had qualified higher than the Sharks the final was played at Waikato Stadium, Hamilton.
Tomás Maria Cubelli is an Argentine professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for Major League Rugby club Miami Sharks and the Argentina national team.
Aki Seiuli is a New Zealand born rugby union player of Samoan heritage who currently plays as a prop for Dragons and the Samoan national side. He previously played for Glasgow Warriors; and the New Zealand sides Otago - in domestic Mitre 10 Cup - and the Highlanders - in the international Super Rugby competition.
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References
- ↑ "Veteran prop enjoying his rugby". Stuff.co.nz . 25 July 2011.
- ↑ "Kuramate Tama Tuirirangi". New Zealand Rugby History.
- ↑ "Chiefs offer little resistance to Sharks". NZ Herald . 15 April 2001.
- ↑ "NPC first step for Cullen". NZ Herald. 25 July 2001.
- ↑ McMurran, Alistair (25 October 2012). "Rugby: Tuirirangi to add oomph to Otago pack for final". Otago Daily Times .
- ↑ "S14: Reds bank on big Kiwis". Brisbane Times . 14 March 2007.