Blake Gibson (born 19 April 1995) is a

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 ...

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 currently plays as a loose forward for in the

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Teknologi Mara, a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia * Institute for Information, Tel ...

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

Early career

Born in Auckland, Gibson attended

Saint Kentigern College Saint Kentigern College is a private co-educational Presbyterian secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. The school is operated by the Saint Kentigern Trust Board. Established in 1953, the college is semi co-educational, with a single-gender ...

in the city and captained their first XV to victory in their local 1A championship. This led to his selection in the Blues Development XV later in the year.

Senior career

Gibson joined the Auckland

team in his first year out of school and made a total of 9 appearances in his first full season scoring 2 tries. Named again to play in the Auckland side for the

2015 ITM Cup The 2015 ITM Cup season was the tenth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 13, when Southland hosted Auckland. It involved the top fourteen rugby uni ...

, he started the opening game of the season at openside flanker, but suffered a knee injury in the first ten minutes that kept him out for the duration of the campaign. The

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

New Zealand domestic season didn't bring much more luck as he mustered 2 tries in 2 matches before again missing the remainder of the year through injury as his Auckland side missed out on the Premiership Play-offs and finished up in 5th position on the log standings.

Super Rugby

Gibson's first season at provincial level made a big enough impression that he was offered a contract as a member of the wider training squad for the

2015 Super Rugby season The 2015 Super Rugby season was the 20th season of Super Rugby and the fifth season featuring an expanded 15-team format. For sponsorship reasons, this competition was known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New ...

. He debuted for the Blues against the , on the day before his 20th birthday and was named for his first start against the on 24 May 2015. The

2016 Super Rugby season The 2016 Super Rugby season was the 21st season of Super Rugby and the first season featuring an expanded 18-team format. It was also the first season that teams outside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa featured, with the Jaguares from Ar ...

saw him earn plenty of game time under new head coach,

Tana Umaga Jonathan Ionatana Falefasa Umaga (; ; born 27 May 1973) is a New Zealand former rugby union footballer and former captain of the national team, the All Blacks. He is head coach of Moana Pasifika in the Super Rugby competition. He was granted ...

. He made 9 appearances, 6 of which were from the start and scored his debut Super Rugby try, making easy work of All Blacks fullback Ben Smith by throwing him and 3 other defenders off. Despite his injury struggles during the later half of the year, Gibson was again named in the Blues squad for

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. Gibson is now in the hurricanes playing number 7.

International

Gibson was named to start for an experienced NZ Barbarians side that played against the Maori All Blacks, shortly after the conclusion of the 2015 Super Rugby Season. Playing at openside flanker, he scored the first try of the game in a standout performance. He was also a vital member of the New Zealand under-20 side which won the

2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the eighth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised for the second time in Italy by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations played i ...

. He scored 2 tries in 4 championship games and was named player's player of the day on 3 occasions during the tournament. Gibson was called up to the All Blacks in 2017 as injury cover following Sam Cane's concussion. Gibson has yet to be capped for New Zealand.

Career honours

New Zealand Under-20 *

World Rugby Under 20 Championship The World Rugby Under 20 Championship (known as the IRB Junior World Championship until 2014) is an annual international rugby union competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, World Rugby, and is contested by 12 men's juni ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Super Rugby statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Blake 1995 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Auckland rugby union players Blues (Super Rugby) players Rugby union players from Auckland People educated at Saint Kentigern College Hurricanes (rugby union) players Tokyo Sungoliath players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes Osaka players