Damian Te We Wehi Oa Te Rangi Karauna (born 6 March 1975) 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 ...

coach and former professional player. He represented New Zealand in

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

and won four

Sevens World Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB Wor ...

Early life

Karauna grew up in

Mangakino Mangakino is a small town on the banks of the Waikato River in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located close to the hydroelectric power station at Lake Maraetai, southeast of Hamilton. The town and its infrastructure are administered a ...

, a small town on banks of the

Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...

Playing career

A utility back, Karauna moved to Hamilton in 1996 to play rugby for Hautapu. He made an early impact in rugby sevens, named player of the tournament in Waikato's 1996 national title-winning team. This performance got the attention of national coach

Gordon Tietjens Sir Gordon Frederick Tietjens (; born 9 December 1955) is a celebrated former coach of the New Zealand men's national team in rugby sevens, the All Blacks Sevens. He spent 22 years in this role. He was also head coach of the Samoa rugby seven ...

, who called him up for that year's Fiji Sevens. Karauna made 50 appearances for the Waikato XV between 1996 and 2000, scoring eight tries during the 1998 season, six of which came in successful

Ranfurly Shield The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the Log o' Wood, is a trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First played for in 1904, the Shield is based on a challenge system. The holding union must defend the shield in challenge ...

defences. Called up by the

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 ...

in 1999, Karauna took the field in seven Super 12 fixtures, serving as back up to

Jason O'Halloran Jason David O'Halloran (born 28 February 1972 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand) is an All Blacks, All Black cap and rugby union coach. He is currently an Assistant Coach to Vern Cotter at the Blues (Super Rugby), Blues. He was previously an assist ...

and Alama Ieremia. He competed for the Chiefs in the 2000 Super 12 season and had two years with the Bay of Plenty, before finishing his career overseas. After two seasons in

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

, Karauna played with Welsh club

Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...

in the 2005–06 season.

Coaching

Karauna remained at Ospreys in 2006 as a video analyst and later began working with their age-grade system. He left in 2012 to take up a position as skills coach under Gordon Tietjens with the New Zealand Sevens team and the following year aided the side as they won the

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) was the former quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it consisted of men's and women's tournaments, and was the highest level of competition in the sport ...

. From 2016 to 2018, Karauna was head coach for the Japan Sevens team, overseeing their qualification for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens and the 2018–19 World Sevens Series. Karauna joined

Moana Pasifika Moana Pasifika is a professional rugby union team based in New Zealand and made up of players from various Pacific Island nations as well as New Zealand or Australian born players of Pasifika heritage, including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook I ...

as an assistant coach in 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karauna, Damian 1975 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players Waikato rugby union players Bay of Plenty rugby union players Hurricanes (rugby union) players Chiefs (Super Rugby) players Rugby union wings Rugby union fullbacks New Zealand international rugby sevens players New Zealand rugby union coaches Coaches of international rugby sevens teams Male rugby sevens players Munakata Sanix Blues players Ospreys (rugby union) players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Wales Expatriate rugby union coaches Rugby union players from Waikato