| Wiki with the Rugby League World Cup in 2008 | ||||||
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ruben James Wiki | |||||
| Nickname | The Kava King[1] | |||||
| Born | 21 January 1973 Auckland, New Zealand |
|||||
| Playing information | ||||||
| Height | 186 cm (6 ft 1 in) | |||||
| Weight | 104 kg (16 st 5 lb) | |||||
| Position | Prop, Centre, Second-row | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 19?? | Otahuhu Leopards | |||||
| 1993–2004 | Canberra Raiders | 225 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 240 |
| 2005–2008 | NZ Warriors | 90 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 48 |
| Total | 315 | 72 | 0 | 0 | 288 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1993 | Auckland | |||||
| 1992–1993 | New Zealand Māori | |||||
| 1994–2006 | New Zealand | 55 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| Source: Yesterday's Hero, RLP | ||||||
Ruben Wiki, ONZM (born 21 January 1973 in South Auckland, New Zealand) is a former professional rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. A New Zealand international representative centre-turned-prop forward, he retired with the record for most number of international appearances of any rugby league player in history.[2] At club level Wiki played for the Canberra Raiders, winning the 1994 NSWRL Premiership with them before finishing his career with the New Zealand Warriors. He currently works as the NZRL's High Performance Manager and a High Performance Assistant with the New Zealand Warriors.
Contents |
An Otahuhu Leopards junior, Wiki played first grade for the Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors in the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) competition.
Alongside future All Black captain Tana Umaga, Wiki wreaked havoc for the Junior Kiwis in 1992. He represented the New Zealand Māori side in 1992 and 1993, playing on the wing at the 1992 Pacific Cup. In 1993 he played for Auckland.[3][4]
In 1994, he teamed up with Kangaroo legend and current Queensland State of Origin coach, Mal Meninga (who was recently listed in the Australian Rugby League's Team of the Century, as centre to score a premiership win for the Canberra Raiders. He was then involved in controversy when both the Canberra Raiders and new Auckland Warriors tried to register him for the 1995 season. After a long dispute Wiki stayed with Canberra where he would remain until 2004 before moving to the Warriors. In 2001 Wiki was banned for two matches after pleading guilty to a dangerous throw charge on Sydney prop Scott Logan.[5]
Wiki joined the New Zealand Warriors in 2005. He became only the tenth player and first New Zealander to play 300 first grade games in the NRL when he started at prop in the Warriors 28-26 victory against the Wests Tigers on the 29 June 2008.
Wiki, of Samoan and Maori heritage,[6] played 55 test matches for New Zealand between 1994 and 2006, equally (with Darren Lockyer) the most test matches played by any rugby league footballer in the world (as at May 2011).[7] He captained the New Zealand national rugby league team in 18 of those tests.[7]
Wiki will probably be remembered most as the captain of the Kiwi team that scored an historic 24–0 win over the Kangaroos in the 2005 Tri-nations.[7] This was the first series win since 1978 and the first time in 20 years that New Zealand had kept Australia scoreless in a test match. In the final Wiki was named man-of-the-match and became the first player of any nation to reach fifty test caps.[8]
During that same period, his former junior Kiwi team mate Tana Umaga, was also captaining his team, the All Blacks to an undefeated tour of the England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
After playing his 55th test match in the 2006 Tri Nations final Ruben Wiki announced his retirement from the international game along with other New Zealand veterans Nigel Vagana and Stacey Jones. New Zealand lost the final in golden point extra time 12-16 after the scores were locked at 12-all after 80 minutes.
Wiki snubbed the chance to join a European Super League side for the 2009 season,[9] and entered into retirement from first grade rugby league in 2008.[10]
He played, what was meant to be his final game with the All Golds as part of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup against the New Zealand Maori rugby league team. Later that year he was an assistant to the New Zealand team which won the Rugby League World Cup.
In 2009 Wiki came out of retirement to play for the Samoan Residents,[11] a team representing his Mother's homeland,[12] in a one off match which raised money for the Samoan tsunami relief fund.[13]
In 2010 Wiki took up a role as a High Performance Assistant with the Warriors.[14] On the 22 January Wiki was named the New Zealand Rugby League's national High Performance Manager, a role which will ensure he is involved with the New Zealand Kiwis.[15]
Wiki's biography, Ruben Wiki, was published in 2006.
In August 2009, Wiki appeared on the New Zealand travel program Intrepid Journeys with a trip to Laos.[16]
In 2002 and 2003 Wiki was named the Canberra Raiders' player of the year. In 2006, he was named in a Kiwi All Time XIII at a gala awards dinner celebrating New Zealand's centenary of rugby league alongside his good friend Stacey Jones. Wiki and Jones are the only recent players to be named in the side with the majority of the players being from the "immortal" 1950-60s side and the destructive 1980s team.
Wiki was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2007 for his services to rugby league.[17]
Wiki drank a bowl of the Pacific island drink kava after each match, which he credits for his longevity in the game.[19]
His sister, Germaine Wiki, has also represented the Kiwi Ferns.[20]
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|||||