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Tony Dale Woodcock (born 27 January 1981 in Helensville, New Zealand) is a rugby union player who plays for North Harbour in the Air New Zealand Cup and for the Blues in the Super 14. He plays for North Harbour Marist in the North Harbour premier competition. He has played for the All Blacks since 2002 and has played 37 tests, scoring two test tries. His position is loosehead prop. He is widely regarded as the best loosehead prop in the world, and one of the most technically gifted scrummagers of the proffesional era.
Woodcock has a reputation for playing as much rugby as possible. In 2005 he played in the first eleven of the twelve All Black test matches that year. From 2001-2004, he played in every match for North Harbour, except for the first two matches of 2004 due to being on All Black duty, and in 2002 and 2003, he played the full eighty minutes of every game for North Harbour. In 2006, he requested and received permission from the All Black coaching staff to return a week early from his enforced rest due to All Black duty, to play in North Harbour's Ranfurly Shield challenge against Canterbury, a match that North Harbour won 21-17, making them the Ranfurly Shield holders for the first time.
While his reputation is built on strong scrummaging and hard graft, Woodcock is a mobile prop with good ball skills who can break out when presented with an open field. he is one of only four players to appear in 11 of the All Blacks’ 12 Test matches in 2005 and the only All Black to appear in 11 straight, missing only the season’s final Test against Scotland at Edinburgh. He first propped the Blues scrum at just 20 years of age, played for a remarkable three New Zealand Under 21 teams, and made his All Blacks debut shortly before his 22nd birthday. He was also the first All Black prop to score a test try against Australia in some 20 years.
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