Craig Ivan Green (born 23 March 1961) is a New Zealand born former

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 ...

footballer and coach. He was part of the 1987 Rugby World Cup winning All Blacks team. He played provincial rugby for

Mid-Canterbury Mid Canterbury (also spelt Mid-Canterbury and mid-Canterbury) is a traditional, semi-official subregion of New Zealand's Canterbury Region extending inland from the Pacific coast to the Southern Alps. It is one of four traditional sub-regions o ...

and

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

and he also played for the New Zealand Colts and went on the rebel

New Zealand Cavaliers The Cavaliers was an unofficial New Zealand rugby union team which toured South Africa in 1986. Because of the Apartheid policies of the South African government, the official New Zealand Rugby Union tour scheduled for 1985 was cancelled, and t ...

tour of South Africa in 1986. He finished off his career in Italy.

New Zealand rugby career

Green started his provincial career in the mid-field for Mid-Canterbury. He then moved to Christchurch and played for

, where he won 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 ...

in 1983 and was one of the key players during Canterbury's 1982-1985 Ranfurly Shield era. While at Canterbury he was asked by the coach,

Alex Wyllie Alexander John "Grizz" Wyllie (30 August 1944 – 22 March 2025) was a New Zealand rugby union player and coach. Playing career Wyllie began his rugby career playing for Glenmark Rugby Club, in North Canterbury. During his first-class career ...

to move from the mid-field to the wing as Canterbury also had

Warwick Taylor Warwick Thomas Taylor (born 11 March 1960) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He won 24 caps for the All Blacks between 1983 and 1988 and played in the victorious New Zealand team at the 1987 Rugby World Cup. Since retiring from rugby ...

and

Victor Simpson Victor Lenard James Simpson (born 26 February 1960) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. A centre, Simpson represented Poverty Bay briefly and then Canterbury at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the Al ...

in the squad. Although not as fast as some top-level wingers, his skills and try-scoring ability saw him succeed at provincial level as well as leading to him gaining selection for the All Blacks. He played 39 times (including 20 test matches) as an

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

from 1983 until 1987, with the highlight of his career being winning the inaugural

1987 Rugby World Cup The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches (17 pool stage matches, two semi-finals, the third-place play-off and the final) while Australia hosted 11 mat ...

. He scored six tries in the 1987 world cup including 4 tries against Fiji. He then "walked away" from New Zealand rugby at 26 because of the low compensation despite the time and commitment required. Green scored 110 tries in his 160 first class games for New Zealand provincial or national teams. He was selected as one of the “Five players of the year” for the 1985 season in the Rugby Almanack of New Zealand.

Italian playing career

From 1985 to 1989 he played in Italy, at Benetton Treviso, club where he won the Italian championship in 1989. One of his partners in the Italian team was the

John Kirwan, Green's teammate in the 1987 World Cup won by the New Zealanders. In 1991 he moved to Casale, where he played until 1994.

Coaching career

Green coached schoolboy rugby at Brisbane Boys' College in Brisbane, Australia. Between 2002 and 2007 he went back to Italy, to coach his former player days team Benetton Treviso. With the Italian club he had a hugely successful era; achieving the national title in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007, and the Coppa Italia in 2005. Green also coached the Italian under 20 team

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Craig 1961 births Living people Rugby union wings New Zealand rugby union coaches New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players People educated at Shirley Boys' High School 1987 Rugby World Cup players Benetton Rugby players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Italy Canterbury rugby union players