Caleb Makene (born 20 April 1996) 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 an outside back or

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

for

Utah Warriors The Utah Warriors are an American professional rugby union team based in Herriman, Utah, that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2010 as the Utah Warriors of the Rugby Super League and re-founded in 2017 by Rugby Ut ...

in the

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

(MLR). In New Zealand, he most recently played for in the

National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to: * National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides * National Provincial Championship (2006–present) The National Provincial Championship (NP ...

competition

Senior career

Born and raised in Napier, Makene attended and played rugby for Napier Boys' High School, captaining their first XV in 2014. After graduating high school, he headed south to attend Lincoln University in Christchurch and study environmental planning and management. While there, he was signed up by the Academy and after 2 years in the Crusaders and Canterbury rugby structures, he was loaned to the Tasman Mako for the

2016 Mitre 10 Cup The 2016 Mitre 10 Cup season was the eleventh season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 18, when North Harbour (National Provincial Championship), North Ha ...

. Two tries in nine appearances for the Mako helped them reach the final of the 2016 Premiership, in which ironically they were defeated by Makene's parent province, Canterbury. After two seasons playing for , Makene decided in February 2019 to return home to to play for the Magpies. While not initially named in their squad for the

2021 Super Rugby season The 2021 Super Rugby season was the 26th season of Super Rugby, an annual men's international rugby union tournament organised by SANZAAR, involving teams from Australia and New Zealand. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament was wholly reg ...

, Makene was called into the squad as cover for

Vilimoni Koroi Vilimoni Koroi (born 17 April 1998) is a New Zealand rugby union player. Koroi was born to Fijian parents Taniela and Seruwaia in Whanganui and was a student at Feilding High School. Koroi played his first match for the New Zealand national ru ...

, who was training with the

New Zealand Sevens The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record 14 World Rugby Sevens Series titles. The team played for the ...

team in preparation of the

2021 Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. 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 Highlanders on 2 April 2021 against the . On 2 December 2021, Makene was named in the

squad for the

2022 Major League Rugby season The 2022 Major League Rugby season was the fifth season of Major League Rugby, the professional rugby union competition sanctioned by USA Rugby. The regular season began on February 5, 2022. The Dallas Jackals made their debut this season, ha ...

International

Makene was a member of the New Zealand Under 20 side which competed in the 2016 Oceania Rugby Under 20 Championship as well as the

2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the ninth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in England by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations took part in the tourname ...

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 ...

, making 5 appearances and scoring 6 tries.

References

External links

New Zealand Rugby History profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Makene, Caleb 1996 births Living people Ngāpuhi people People educated at Napier Boys' High School Rugby union players from Napier, New Zealand New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in the United States Rugby union wings Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union fly-halves Tasman rugby union players 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen Canterbury rugby union players Hawke's Bay rugby union players Highlanders (rugby union) players Crusaders (rugby union) players Utah Warriors players New Orleans Gold players