- Rua Tipoki
Te Rua Reihana Tipoki (born
11 August 1975 inTe Puia Springs ,New Zealand ) brought up inTe Araroa in Gisborne, is arugby union player who has played for North Harbour in theAir New Zealand Cup and for theAuckland Blues in theSuper 14 . Tipoki currently (As of 2007 ) plays for the Irish club side Munster. His position is outside centre. Tipoki holds the unique honour of captaining two different Air New Zealand Cup provinces toRanfurly Shield victories, Bay of Plenty in 2004, and North Harbour in 2006.He has also played for the Otago Highlanders, New Zealand 7s in 1997, and the New Zealand Maori team which defeated the British & Irish Lions team for the first time ever in the history of Maori rugby in
2005 . Has played for his home Union East Coast. with Munster and has fashioned one of the best centre partnerships in theHeineken Cup withLifeimi Mafi . He played in the Munster team which won the European Tipoki is fast becoming a cult hero (Heineken) cup on May 24th, 2008 beating Toulouse 16-13 in the final. He plays with passion and flair, with a strong tackle and a has also stated that his only complaint since moving to Munster is that he had not done so sooner. Rua Tipoki is a fan favourite in Munster, which has led to a site being set-up for him on the social networking siteBebo .nice step. He has currently scored two Heineken Cup tries and won man of the match in Munster'sThomond Park win overLlanelli Scarlets in this competition. HeFoul play
Tipoki has been involved in several well documented – caught on television cameras – incidents of foul play. Both incidents showed him hitting opponents (
Jean de Villiers andJames Hilgen-dorf ) in the head with his elbow. He has the dubious distinction of being handed the longest suspension ever in theSuper 14 for the elbow on Hilgendorf during the2006 Super 14 season .cite news
title = Nathan Burdon shakes his head at Blues bad boy Rua Tipoki
url = http://www.nznewsuk.co.uk/sport/?ID=2630&StartRow=1
work = New Zealand News UK
date = 2006-04-18
accessdate = 2007-09-17]Rua was the first Super 14 player to get a hat trick of tries, in the first ever new Super 14 competition.
References
External links
* [http://www.munsterrugby.ie/97_7045.php Munster profile]
* [http://www.harbourrugby.co.nz/PPRuaTipoki.htm/Rua-Tipoki Profile on North Harbour Rugby Union site]
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