Nicholas Mark Cummins (born 5 October 1987), known by his nickname Honey Badger after the mammal of the same name, is an Australian Former professional Rugby Union Player and advertiser for Tradie underwear. Cummins' nickname was bestowed on him after he drew inspiration from the fierce nature of the

honey badger The honey badger (''Mellivora capensis''), also known as the ratel ( or ), is a mammal widely distributed across Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. It is the only living species in both the genus ''Mellivora'' and the subfami ...

and attempted to think like the animal in defence. He is also well known for starring in the sixth season of ''

The Bachelor Australia ''The Bachelor Australia'' is a reality television adaptation of the U.S. series of the same name. The series, hosted by Osher Günsberg, first premiered on Network 10 on 8 September 2013. Its success resulted in spin-offs '' The Bachelorette ...

''.

Early life

Cummins was born in

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie, sometimes shortened to Port Mac and commonly locally nicknamed Port, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane, on the Tasman Sea coast at the mouth of the ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. One of eight siblings, he identifies as a Queenslander as he was raised in

Logan City The City of Logan is a local government area (LGA) located in the south of Greater Brisbane in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. Situated between the City of Brisbane to the north and the City of Gold Coast to the south, the City of Lo ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

's south by his father Mark Cummins, who was a single dad. He attended St Francis' College in

Crestmead Crestmead is a suburb in the City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. In the , Crestmead had a population of 12,271 people. History In 1885, a number of Swedish immigrants from the ship ''Chyebassa'' established farms in the area. Early crops in ...

, where he starred in the swimming pool and on the athletics track, as well as on the rugby field. In 2005, Cummins represented

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

at the Australian Schools Rugby Championships in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. He moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 2006, where he joined the

Randwick Randwick is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government ar ...

rugby club and played for their grand final-winning Colts side that year.

Rugby career

In 2007, Cummins was selected for the

Australian Sevens The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and on ...

squad and he was the top try scorer for the team at the

IRB Sevens World Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World ...

. Later that year, he moved to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

after signing a two-year contract with the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competitio ...

. Cummins played for the

Perth Spirit The Perth Spirit is a former rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, that played in the National Rugby Championship (NRC) from 2014 to 2017, winning the competition in 2016. The team was formed in 2007 to compete in the Australian Ru ...

team that reached the semi-final stage of the

Australian Rugby Championship The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, was a domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ran for onl ...

in 2007. He made his

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 has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

debut for the

in 2008, starting in the first round against the

Sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

. In 2009, Cummins was invited to the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

training camp prior to the northern Spring Tour, although injury prevented his involvement on that tour. In 2010, he was selected for the

Australian Barbarians The Australian Barbarians, nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team that has been a major part of Australian rugby since the team was founded in 1957. The club is based in Australia. The idea came from the concept of the Ba ...

and played in two home matches against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He was then selected in Australia's 28-man squad that travelled to South Africa as part of the 2010 Tri-Nations series, although he wasn't required to play. Later that year, Cummins went to the Commonwealth Games Sevens tournament in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, where he played in Australia's silver medal-winning team. In 2012, Cummins was selected for the Australia squad for the inaugural Rugby Championship. He made his Test debut on 6 October 2012, and played on the wing in the Wallabies 25–19 win over

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

. On 4 July 2014 it was announced that Cummins would be released early from his Western Force and Australian Rugby Union contracts on compassionate grounds. He announced he would be moving to Japan due to health concerns in his family. He signed a new contract with Japanese club the

Coca-Cola Red Sparks The Coca-Cola Red Sparks () was a Japanese company-owned rugby team based in Fukuoka city, Kyūshū. The team was initially founded as Kitakyushu Coca-Cola and then changed its name to Coca-Cola West Japan. The team won promotion to the expande ...

. In 2016, Cummins won his first Championship outside of junior rugby when he came on as a non-scoring substitute in the final of the amateur Norwegian Rugby Union Championship for Stavanger RK in their win against Oslo RK.

Television and advertising roles

Because of Cummins' broad

Australian accent Australian English (AuE) accents are the non-rhotic pronunciations of English used by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, Australian English is a relatively regionally homogeneous variety of the English language. Australian English i ...

and very Australian attitude, he has featured in several ad campaigns as an "Aussie Larrikin" character. Cummins has been the face of Tradie underwear and workwear for men since August 2015, as well as featuring in small TV campaigns for

Head & Shoulders Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti- dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble. The active anti-fungal ingredient in Head & Shoulders is piroctone olamine or zinc pyrithione, with some "cl ...

shampoo in 2014 and beer company Iron Jack over Christmas in late 2017. In October 2017, he was an ambassador for

Tourism Australia Tourism Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for promoting Australian locations as business and leisure travel destinations. The agency is a corporate portfolio agency of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and ...

, in a campaign which also featured Australian actor

Lincoln Lewis Lincoln Clay Lewis (born 24 October 1987) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Home and Away'' (2007–2010) and in the 2010 film '' Tomorrow, When the War Began''. Early life Lewis was born in Brisba ...

. Cummins playfully took aim at Tourism Australia ambassador,

Chris Hemsworth Christopher Hemsworth (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian actor. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, and Bulman, Northern Territory, he rose to prominence playing Kim Hyde in the Australian television series ''Home and Away'' (2004� ...

, defending claims he was not as big a name as the Hollywood-based Australian actor. Cummins is also the presenter of the National Geographic program ''Meanwhile In Australia''. A documentary series in which he travels around Australia gathering stories of people and places along the road. On 14 March 2018, it was confirmed by

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

that Cummins would star in the sixth season of ''

'' in 2018. Cummins appeared as one of the hosts for Team Australia on the third season of ''

Ultimate Beastmaster ''Ultimate Beastmaster'' is an American reality sports entertainment competition that premiered on Netflix on February 24, 2017. The show differentiates itself from other obstacle course competition shows by showcasing not only international tal ...

'', a

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

original series. In 2020, it was announced Cummins would be participating the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

's reality program '' SAS Australia''. Cummins was one of three recruits to pass selection along with

Merrick Watts Merrick Watts (born 18 November 1973) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter. He is best known for performing stand-up comedy and radio works as part of the comedy duo Merrick and Rosso with Tim Ross. Career Stand up Watts beg ...

and

Sabrina Frederick Sabrina Frederick (formerly Frederick-Traub; born 23 November 1996) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She was one of Brisbane's two marquee players for the 2017 season, along ...

. 2023 saw Cummins entering the South African jungle as a late arrival on the 9th season of '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Australia''. Cummins was eliminated 4th on 20 April 2023.

Publications

* * *

Super Rugby statistics

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cummins, Nick 1987 births Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Western Force players Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Living people Coca-Cola Red Sparks players Australian expatriate rugby union players in Japan Australia international rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Male rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games silver medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for Australia Sportspeople from Logan, Queensland Bachelor Nation contestants Rugby union players from New South Wales Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Randwick DRUFC players 21st-century Australian sportsmen People from Port Macquarie