Taine Randell

Taine Randell (born 5 November 1974 in Hastings, New Zealand) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. He was a versatile loose forward and a former All Black captain.

Summary

In his 61 game tenure as an All Black, Randall played 51 tests, including 22 as captain. He also captained Otago in the National Provincial Championship (NPC) at the age of 19. His All Black debut was versus Italy 'A' at the age of 20, and his test debut versus Fiji, age 22. In his time as an All Black he scored 12 tries for a total of 60 points.

Early career

Randell excelled as a rugby player, cricketer, and student at Lindisfarne College near Hastings and in 1992 he went to the University of Otago where he completed degrees in law and commerce. He played for Otago in the National Provincial Championship and the Otago Highlanders in 1996 in the opening season of the Super 14

Randell played his first game for the All Blacks in 1995 against an Italy A selection.

Randell was 21 when he first captained the All Blacks in South Africa in 1996 in four non-test games and only 23 when he first captained the All Blacks vs England in 1998. Randell was selected as captain to replace Sean Fitzpatrick by new coach John Hart. At the time there was some controversy about this selection as Randell was quite young and inexperienced and it is not clear that he himself wanted to be captain. It is widely supposed that Hart wanted to select a new captain who had not been an All Black under former coach Laurie Mains.

In 1999, Randell captaining the Otago Highlanders to an 8-3 regular season record and subsequently to the 1999 Super 12 Final where they lost to the Canterbury Crusaders in a closely fought match 24-19. Randell captained the Highlanders for seven years from 1997 to 2003.

Randell's low moment came during the 1999 Rugby World Cup where he led the team during the defeat to France in the semi-final. Randell left New Zealand to spend a month in Florida in the United States to get away from the negative media spotlight.

After this defeat, Todd Blackadder became captain, although Randell retained his place in the team for 2000 and 2001.

Later career

When John Mitchell and Robbie Deans took over the coaching of the All Blacks from Wayne Smith and Tony Gilbert in October 2001 Randell was dropped from the All Blacks. He missed all of the 2002 Tri-Nations series, but after his form in the 2002 Super 12 season earned him a recall to captain the All Blacks on the end of the year tour of England, France and Wales. The tour resulted in one win against Wales (his last test as Captain), a draw with France, and a loss to England. During the tour Randell raised his test appearances past 50. He continued to play for the Highlanders, but was not selected for the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

Taine then left New Zealand just before the 2003 Rugby World Cup and relocated with his family to Central London. He signed with the English Premier League Team Saracens in August 2003. He retired at the end of their 2005-2006 season, despite offers from Saracens to return to play for 2006-07. During his final year at Saracens Taine said he was accused of being lazy and not running at players enough.

Post rugby career

Randell pursued a career in finance and was a successful commodity broker in London from mid-2006 through to October 2008. He also became a part owner in the big easy on the Kings Road.

Personal life

Randell is married to Jo, and they have two sons. At the end of 2008, he returned with his family to New Zealand, and now lives in Hastings.

External links

• Taine Randell at AllBlacks.com
• Profile at scrum.com