Dane Stuart Coles (born 10 December 1986) is a former 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 ...

player. Coles was a key member of the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

winning team. He also captained 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 ...

to their maiden

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 ...

title in 2016. He was widely regarded as one of the best hookers in the world at the height of his career and was a nominee for

World Rugby Player of the Year The World Rugby Men's 15s Player of the Year is an award presented annually by World Rugby at the World Rugby Awards. It is given to honour "the achievements of those involved at the highest level of the world game on the field". First presente ...

in 2016.

Early life

Coles attended Paraparaumu Beach School. He later attended Paraparaumu College and Wellington College.

Rugby career

In 2012, Coles made his

All Blacks 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 ...

debut against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. He came on in the 62nd minute: New Zealand 51, Scotland 22. Coles made three more appearances off the bench in 2012, earning his first start for New Zealand in 2013 against France. Coles scored his first try against South Africa in 2014 in a 25–27 loss and had also become a regular starter for New Zealand by 2014, supplanting long-serving All Black great

Keven Mealamu Keven Filipo Mealamu (born 20 March 1979) is a former New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played at hooker for the Blues in Super Rugby, Auckland in the National Provincial Championship, and the New Zealand national team. He was part of t ...

from the starting XV. Coles started in the knockout rounds of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, including the final against Australia, where the 34–17 victory saw New Zealand become the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles. Of

Ngāti Porou Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. It has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi, behind Ngāpuhi, with an estimated 102,480 people according to the ...

descent, Coles was awarded the Tom French Memorial Cup in 2016 as the Māori rugby player of the year. After scoring four tries that year, which made him the highest-scoring forward in the squad for 2016, Coles was also nominated for New Zealand Rugby Player of the Year and World Rugby Player of the Year earlier in 2016, losing both awards to Hurricanes teammate

Beauden Barrett Beauden John Barrett (born 27 May 1991) is a New Zealand rugby union player who plays as a First five-eighth or Fullback for the Blues in Super Rugby and Taranaki in the Bunnings NPC. Barrett won the World Rugby Player of the Year awards ...

. Following the

, Hurricanes midfielder and Captain

Conrad Smith Conrad Gerard Smith (born 12 October 1981) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, who played predominantly at centre. He captained the Hurricanes in Super Rugby, and played for New Zealand from 2004 until 2015. He was a key mem ...

announced that he would leave New Zealand for Pau in France. Smith's departure saw Coles named as the captain of the Hurricanes for 2016. Coles played in the first three games of the

2017 Super Rugby season The 2017 Super Rugby season was the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the second season featuring an expanded ...

for the Hurricanes but after a concussion on 18 March missed an extended period of time, including the drawn British and Irish Lions test series. Coles lost the Hurricanes captaincy to halfback

TJ Perenara Thomas Tekanapu Rawakata Perenara (born 23 January 1992), commonly known as TJ Perenara, is a New Zealand rugby union player who plays as a half-back for the Black Rams Tokyo in the Japan Rugby League One. He has previously played for the Hu ...

but returned to play in the Super Rugby quarter final on 21 July against the Brumbies in Canberra, coming off the bench for Ricky Riccitelli in the Hurricanes dominant 35–16 victory. He started the following week's semi-final against the

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. It is se ...

Ellis Park Stadium Ellis Park Stadium (known as Emirates Airline Park for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby union and association football stadium in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It hosted the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was won by th ...

, which the Hurricanes lost. Due to concussion he missed the first Bledisloe Cup test of 2017 but earned his 50th test in a 35–29 win against Australia in the second Bledisloe Cup test on August 26. Coles was retained as a starting player for the rest of the

2017 Rugby Championship The 2017 Rugby Championship was the sixth edition of the expanded annual southern hemisphere The Rugby Championship, Rugby Championship, featuring Argentina national rugby union team, Argentina, Australia national rugby union team, Australia, Sout ...

despite the form of Codie Taylor who had started against the Lions in his absence. Coles scored a try in the 38–18 win against France but was subbed off after 20 minutes, due to tearing his ACL, in what was only his 11th professional rugby game of 2017. Coles missed all of the

2018 Super Rugby season The 2018 Super Rugby season was the 23rd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. After two seasons in which 18 teams participate ...

due to his ACL injury. Coles was expected to be back in time for the playoffs but was physically unable to run until June. England international, Brad Shields, captained the Hurricanes in 2018 in Coles' absence. After finally recovering from injury at the back-end of the

2018 Mitre 10 Cup The 2018 Mitre 10 Cup season was the thirteenth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 16, when North Harbour (National Provincial Championship), North ...

, Coles, as well as his teammate Nepo Laulala were both recalled for New Zealand after a long injury-enforced absence. Coles played four tests for New Zealand during the

2018 end-of-year rugby union internationals The 2018 end of year rugby union tests, also referred to as the Autumn internationals in the Northern Hemisphere, were a number of rugby union test matches played during October and November, primarily involving countries from the Northern Hemisphe ...

, but was on the bench for the All Blacks against England and Ireland, having been surpassed as the first-choice hooker by Codie Taylor. In 2021 Coles led the haka for the

side a total four times. For all four the

Ka Mate "Ka Mate" () is a Māori people, Māori haka composed by Te Rauparaha, the historic leader of the iwi of Ngāti Toa of the North Island of New Zealand during the Musket Wars. Composition Te Rauparaha composed "Ka Mate" circa 1820 as a celebrati ...

version was performed. On 10 July 2021 versus Fiji Coles scored four tries which is a record for an All Blacks forward in one match. After the

2023 Rugby World Cup The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

Coles signed with Japanese club Kubota Spears.

Style of play

Coles is a modern-game hooker who, without sacrificing mass or power for breakdown phases, is also extremely mobile across the field and capable of producing high-quality passing. Such set of skills, traditionally unusual in a front-rower, allow him to join setplays as an extra centre and even to deliver impressively fast runs on the wing. His effectiveness has been praised after his international debut, "with many experts describing Coles as having 'revolutionised' the role of the modern hooker".

Honours

New Zealand *

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

Webb Ellis Cup The Webb Ellis Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the men's Rugby World Cup, the premier competition in men's international rugby union. The Cup is named after William Webb Ellis, who is often credited as being the inventor of rugby foot ...

**Winner:

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 ...

**Third-place:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

**Second-place:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Hurricanes ** Winner Super Rugby - 2016

Individual

IRB player of the year nominee -

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 ...

References

External links

* *
Hurricanes profile

Wellington Lions profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coles, Dane Living people New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Hurricanes (rugby union) players Wellington rugby union players 1986 births Rugby union hookers Māori All Blacks players People from Paraparaumu Sportspeople from the Kāpiti Coast District Ngāti Porou people Rugby union players from the Wellington Region People educated at Paraparaumu College People educated at Wellington College, Wellington 2015 Rugby World Cup players 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay players 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen