Ben Botica (born 7 October 1989,

Takapuna Takapuna is a suburb located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is situated at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitematā Harbour. While very small in terms of population, it ...

) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

player. A

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

or centre, he plays for French club

Castres Castres (; ''Castras'' in the Languedocian dialect of Occitan) is the sole subprefecture of the Tarn department in the Occitanie region in Southern France. It lies in the former province of Languedoc, although not in the former region of Lang ...

. The son of the

international

Frano Botica Frano Michael Botica (born 3 August 1963) is a New Zealand-Croatian rugby union and rugby league coach and former player in both codes, who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the head coach of the Philippines sevens team. He represented New ...

, he played rugby at school and was selected to play for the New Zealand Schoolboys team. In 2008, he spent a year in France where he played with the Espoirs (Academy) team of

Biarritz Olympique Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (; ), usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Iparralde, Basque city of Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine which competes in the Rugby Pro D2, Pro D2, the second division of ...

. He then returned to New Zealand where he joined North Harbour. He played his first professional match in August 2009 against Southland in the

Air New Zealand Cup The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. In 2011, he narrowly missed out on selection for the

Auckland Blues The Blues (known as the Auckland Blues from 1996 to 2000) is a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Auckland, who play in the Super Rugby competition. Like New Zealand's four other Super Rugby teams, the Blues were established by ...

franchise and the chance to play in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

. He returned to France where he played the 2011-2012 Pro D2 season with

CA Périgueux Club Athlétique Périgueux Dordogne (also known as just CA Périgourdin) is a French rugby union club that currently competes in the second division of French club rugby, the Pro D2 competition. Périgueux played in the higher divisions in the ea ...

. Late in the season, it was announced that he had signed a two-year contract with Harlequins although he actually signed in October 2011. As a British passport holder, he did not count as a foreign player. In his initial season with Harlequins, he was the top points scorer (with 78) in the LV Cup. In his final game at Harlequins, the 2016 European Challenge Cup Final, Botica came on as a replacement to face the club he was about to join. With time nearly up and Quins trailing by 7 points he kicked the ball to Montpellier who put it into touch to end the game. Most had expected him to keep the ball live and mount one final attack to attempt to level the scores and take it to extra time. It was Head Coach Conor O'Shea's last game for the club. Botica joined Montpellier in 2016 and moved to Oyonnax in 2017. On 16 November 2020, Botica would sign for French rivals

on a two-year deal from the 2021–22 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botica, Ben 1989 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players North Harbour rugby union players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union centres Harlequin F.C. players Oyonnax Rugby players Union Bordeaux Bègles players New Zealand people of Croatian descent Castres Olympique players CA Périgueux players Rugby union players from Auckland People from Takapuna