Rua Tipoki

Te Rua Reihana Tipoki (born 11 August 1975 in Te Puia Springs, New Zealand)^[1] brought up in Te Araroa in Gisborne, is a rugby union player who captained North Harbour to Ranfurly Shield victory in 2006. Tipoki played for a wide variety of teams including Munster Rugby. He currently plays for Ruatoria-based East Coast.

In his early career he played for Auckland Blues and Otago Highlanders in the Super 12 and the New Zealand 7s. He also played a major part in the Bay of Plenty Steamers first Ranfurly Shield win in 2004, played in the New Zealand Maori team which defeated the British and Irish Lions team for the first time ever in the history of Maori rugby in 2005,^[2] and led North Harbour to their first Ranfurly Shield victory in 2006. He played one season for the Crusaders in 2007, before departing to Munster.

With Munster, he fashioned one of the best centre partnerships in the Heineken Cup with Lifeimi Mafi,^[3] playing with passion and flair, a strong tackle and a great handoff and step. He was part of the Munster team that won the Heineken Cup on 24 May 2008 beating Toulouse 16–13 in the final. In all he made 29 appearances (including 27 competitive & 10 Heineken Cup games) for Munster, scoring 3 tries. On 24 April 2009 Tipoki announced that he would return to his native New Zealand at the end of the season due to a hamstring injury that had consistently hampered him.

After a couple of years of recuperation in New Zealand, in 2011 Tipoki signed for the Ruatoria based team, East Coast.^[4] In 2012 he captained the side to win the Meads Cup.^[5]

• Munster Profile
• Profile on North Harbour Rugby Union site^{[permanent dead link]}