Ben Rauter (born 6 January 1979) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer and current assistant coach of the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

(NRL). A or er, played for the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugb ...

, Cowboys and the

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home fixtures at the DIY Kitchen Stadium, Belle Vue and currently compete in the Super League, the top tier of the British rugby le ...

Background

Rauter attended Erindale College before being signed by the

. In 1996, he represented the

Australian Schoolboys The Australian Schoolboys refer to junior teams that represent Australia in various sports. The name is mainly used in rugby league, rugby union and baseball. Other popular team sports in Australia such as cricket, basketball, association footbal ...

and New South Wales under-17 team. Rauter's father, Herb, represented the Australian Schoolboys in 1972, with the pair becoming the first father-son combination to represent the side.

Playing career

In Round 9 of the

1998 NRL season The 1998 NRL season was the 91st season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the inaugural season of the newly formed National Rugby League (NRL). After the 1997 season, in which the Australian Rugby League and Super League (Au ...

, Rauter made his NRL debut for the Raiders, coming off the bench in their 24–18 win over the

Adelaide Rams The Adelaide Rams was an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super Lea ...

. He played two more games for the Raiders in 1998, leaving the club at the end of the season. In 1999, Rauter joined the

. In Round 3 of the

1999 NRL season The 1999 NRL season was the 92nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the second to be run by the National Rugby League. With the exclusion of the Adelaide Rams and Gold Coast Chargers, and the joint venture of the S ...

, he made his debut for the Cowboys, starting at in a 18–26 loss to the

Balmain Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995 to 1996) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain, New South Wales, Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and on ...

. He played just three games for the Cowboys that season, spending the majority of the season playing for the

Cairns Cyclones The Cairns Cyclones were a rugby league team that competed in the QRL Queensland Cup competition from 1996 to 2000. The inaugural 1996 team included the Captain/Coach and six first grade players from CDRL's Smithfield-based Ivanhoes Rugby Leag ...

in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league, rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League, Queensland Rugby ...

. In 2000, he played six games for the Cowboys, starting two at , before leaving the club at the end of the season. In 2001, Rauter joined the

, playing 22 games, starting 12 at . After leaving Wakefield, Rauter returned to Australia, playing locally in

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

. In 2003, he made appearances for the

North Queensland Young Guns The North Queensland Young Guns were a rugby league team competing in the Queensland Cup. They acted as a feeder team for the North Queensland Cowboys. The Cowboys had previously entered reserve grade teams in the Australian Rugby League and Su ...

in the

Coaching career

In 2013 and 2014, Rauter was an assistant coach for the Northern Pride under head coach Jason Demetriou, with the club winning the

premiership and

NRL State Championship The NRL State Championship is a rugby league match contested by the premiers of the two elite second-tier competitions in Australia, the New South Wales Cup and the Queensland Cup. The match has been played as a curtain-raiser to the NRL Grand ...

in 2014. From 2015 to 2018, Rauter coached the Ivanhoes Knights in the

Cairns District Rugby League The Cairns District Rugby League was formed on 5 August 1918 and is the administrative body for the game of rugby league football in Cairns, Queensland. The CDRL runs senior, junior and women's club competitions and has its headquarters at Barl ...

, winning a premiership with the club in 2016. In 2019, he coached Cairns in the

Foley Shield The Foley Shield is a rugby league competition in North Queensland administered by the Queensland Rugby League. Prior to 1948 an inter-town competition known as the Carlton Cup was contested in North Queensland. This was revamped, and renamed ...

. On 30 October 2020, Rauter joined the

coaching staff, acting as the club's development coach.

Statistics

NRL

Post-playing career

After retiring from rugby league professionally, Ratuer became a police constable in

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

. In 2006, he represented the Queensland Police state team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rauter, Ben 1979 births Living people 20th-century Australian sportsmen 21st-century Australian sportsmen Australian rugby league players Canberra Raiders players North Queensland Cowboys players Wakefield Trinity players Rugby league hookers Rugby league second-rows Australian police officers Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at Erindale College