Rodney Blake (born 29 April 1983) is an Australian professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

footballer. He played as a

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

in Super Rugby for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competitions ...

and

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

, and played for Bayonne in the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

in France. He is sometimes referred to as Rodzilla. Blake made his debut for 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 so ...

in 2006.

Early life

Rodney Blake was born in Sa'aveki,

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. His father Paul is a former Otago flanker and moved his family to Sydney when Rodney was 13. The young Blake played rugby for the

West Harbour RFC The West Harbour Rugby Football Club is a team in the Shute Shield, the premier club rugby union football competition in New South Wales. The club is based in Concord in the Inner West of Sydney, and plays home matches at Concord Oval. Concor ...

juniors and was educated at

Homebush Boys High School ''(Latin for ''Upright and strong'') , established = 1936 , type = Public, secondary, single-sex, day school , free_label = Sister school , free_text = Strathfield Girls High School , principal = Kevin Elgood (2018) , address = ...

. He was a member of the Australian Schools side, and he represented Australia under-21 world cup in Scotland.

Career

He made his Queensland Reds Super Rugby debut against the

Otago Highlanders The Highlanders (formerly the Otago Highlanders) is a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Dunedin that compete in Super Rugby. The team was formed in 1996 to represent the lower South Island in the newly formed Super 12 compet ...

. He was a regular in the Reds' line-up during the

2006 Super 14 season The 2006 Super 14 season started on 10 February 2006. The Grand Final was held on 27 May 2006. Super 14 is a provincial rugby union competition with 14 teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. This season was the first of the expansion, ...

. He was named in John Connolly's Wallaby side, and made his

test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

debut against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Telstra Stadium Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sydney Olympic Park, in Sydney, Australia. The stadium, which in Australia is sometimes referred to as Sydney Olympic Stad ...

, playing the full 80 minutes. In the closing minutes of the match Blake charged over to score the final try of the game which saw Australia win 34 to 3. He was injured in the subsequent victory over England, and thus missed the following match against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Blake missed the opening matches of the

2006 Tri Nations Series 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

but played for the Wallabies in a

Bledisloe Cup The Bledisloe Cup is an annual rugby union competition originally staged between the national teams of Australia's Wallabies and New Zealand's All Blacks that has been contested since the 1930s. The frequency that the competition is held has va ...

match against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

in Brisbane. In October 2006, he was named the Reds "Player of the Year" and awarded the Pilecki Medal. In 2009, after failing to secure a Super 14 contract in Australia, Blake moved to France and spent two seasons in the French

competition. In 2010 Blake returned to Australia, joining the

in preparation for the Rebels'

2011 Super Rugby season The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16t ...

. In 2012, his Rebels team mates included props Nic Henderson, Laurie Weeks, the 20-year-old

Paul Alo-Emile Paul Alo-Emile (born 22 December 1991) is a Samoan rugby union player. His regular playing position is prop. He plays for Stade Français Paris in the Top 14. Career Early playing Alo-Emile is of Samoan heritage, born in New Zealand he grew ...

, and new signings

Kurtley Beale Kurtley James Beale (born 6 January 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union representative player who has made over 90 national representative appearances in a ten-year playing career at the world-class level. He is of Aboriginal desce ...

and James O'Connor. Rebels coach Damien Hill praised Blake's agility, and decision making abilities in both attack and defence. Hill said, "Rodney's biggest challenge, season in, season out, is to make sure he has the aerobic capacity to perform those skills for long periods of time rather than in small bits." Blake left the Rebels after the 2012 season and moved to

Airlie Beach Airlie Beach is a coastal locality in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. In the , Airlie Beach had a population of 1,208 people. Geography Airlie Beach is one of many departure points for the Great Barrier Reef. Cruise ships visi ...

in Queensland. He played representative rugby for the Mackay Stingers in the North Queensland Rugby Championships in 2014.

References

External links

It's Rugby stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Rodney 1983 births Tongan rugby union players Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Living people Rugby union props Tongan emigrants to Australia Queensland Reds players Melbourne Rebels players Aviron Bayonnais players Expatriate rugby union players in France Australian expatriate rugby union players