Albert Samuel Mathewson (born 13 December 1985) is a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who plays as a scrum-half.

Early life and education

Mathewson was born in

Hastings, New Zealand Hastings (; , ) is an inland city of New Zealand and is one of the two major urban areas of New Zealand, urban areas in Hawke's Bay Region, Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. The population of Hastings (including Flaxmere) is ...

. He first attended Havelock North High School but switched to

Hastings Boys' High School Hastings Boys' High School is a boys' secondary school in Hastings, New Zealand. The school is part of the Super 8. The school was founded in 1904 as Hastings High School. In 1922, it became Hastings Technical School under the leadership of Wi ...

to improve his game. He studied at

Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...

after finishing his schooling.

Rugby

Mathewson made his

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

debut in 2006 and

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

debut in 2007, before shifting to the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

in 2010. Mathewson made his international debut for

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 2010. In 2012, Mathewson signed 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 ...

in Australia, which he extended until 2016 two years later. Mathewson joined Irish side

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

, who play in the

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

and Champions Cup and have a history of playing New Zealand, on a four-month short-term contract in August 2018. Mathewson, who played against Munster for

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

during the 2017–18 season and also played for New Zealand against Munster in November 2008, was signed as injury-cover for

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

international

Conor Murray Gerard Conor Murray (born 20 April 1989) is an Irish rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for United Rugby Championship club Munster. He is set to leave at the end of the season. Early life Murray was born in Limerick, where he atten ...

, who had been ruled out for a short period with a neck injury. Mathewson made his debut for Munster on 29 September 2018, starting their

2018–19 Pro14 The 2018–19 Pro14 (also known as the '' Guinness Pro14'' for sponsorship reasons) is the eighteenth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League. It was the second season to be referred to as the '' ...

fixture against provincial rivals

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

Thomond Park Thomond Park is a stadium in Limerick in the Irish province of Munster. The stadium is owned by the Munster Rugby and has Shannon RFC and UL Bohemian RFC as tenants. Limerick FC played home games in Thomond Park from 2013 to 2015 in the Le ...

, which Munster won 64–7. He scored his first try for Munster in the provinces 30–22 defeat at the hands of

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

on 6 October 2018. He signed a three-month contract extension with Munster in November 2018. Mathewson's contract with Munster was again extended in February 2019, this time until the end of the 2018–19 season, before again being extended until the end of November 2019 to provide

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

cover. His last appearance for Munster was in their 21–21 draw against French side

Racing 92 Racing 92 () is a French professional rugby union club based in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Paris' western inner Banlieue, suburbs that competes in Top 14. The club plays its home matches at the 30,681-capacity Stadium#Types, domed stadium Pa ...

in round two of the 2019–20 Champions Cup on 23 November 2019. He joined Munster's provincial rivals

on a one-year contract in July 2020, and made his debut for the province in their 26–20 defeat against

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

on 23 August 2020. Mathewson was released by Ulster at the end of the 2020–21 season. He joined Australian

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 ...

side

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane 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 ...

on a short-term contract as injury cover for Tate McDermott in March 2022.

Personal life

Mathewson and his wife, Cara Mathewson, have two sons together. The oldest was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 2010. At the time Mathewson was training with the All Blacks. Their youngest was born in Perth, Australia in 2015.

Super Rugby Statistics

References

External links