Eric James Rush (born 11 February 1965) 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 ...

footballer and

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 ...

player, and now a supermarket owner. His

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 ...

career began in 1988 and ran until 2004. Rush played in more than 60 tournaments, with the highlights being two

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

gold medals and the World Cup Sevens victory in 2001. He was also voted Best and Fairest Player at the 1991 Hong Kong Sevens. He was regarded as a pacy and skillful winger and also played for the

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 ...

briefly until the emergence of

Jonah Lomu Jonah Tali Lomu (12 May 1975 – 18 November 2015) was a New Zealand professional rugby union player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players in the history of the sport, and as one of the most talented sportsm ...

effectively ended his All Blacks career. Lomu played a major role in the 2001 World Cup Sevens win, effectively filling in for Rush, who suffered a broken leg in New Zealand's last group match of that tournament.

Early life

Born in

Kaeo Kaeo (Māori: ''Kāeo'') is a township in the Far North District of New Zealand, located some northwest of Kerikeri. The town's name comes from the Māori-language name of the New Zealand freshwater mussel, which is found in nearby rivers. Sa ...

on 11 February 1965, Rush was educated at

Tangaroa College Tangaroa College is a state coeducational secondary school catering for years 9–13 in Ōtara, Auckland, New Zealand. Scholarships On a yearly basis Tangaroa College receives 20 exclusive scholarships from the Manukau Institute of Technology ...

in the Auckland suburb of

Ōtara Ōtara is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand (formerly Manukau City), situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD, Auckland City Centre. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tāmaki River. The area is traditionally part of t ...

. He went on to study at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree in 1988.

Career

Rush switched full-time to rugby sevens in 1999 to compete in the newly formed IRB international Sevens circuit. Rush helped New Zealand to win the first six editions of the World Sevens Series. Over the course of 14 years, Rush regularly appeared for the

team at the

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens ( zh, t=香港國際七人欖球賽, link=no) is a rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competiti ...

and other sevens tournaments, mostly as captain. In later years, he was converted into a forward in the sevens version, with the wing position given to his understudy Karl Te Nana. In 15s rugby, Rush played first for

Auckland Rugby Union The Auckland Rugby Union is a New Zealand provincial rugby union. The union was established in 1883 and was originally responsible for the administration of the sport in most of the former Auckland Province, although its boundaries have since s ...

then moved North to play for North Harbour at NPC level, where he blossomed.

All Blacks statistics

* Tests: 9 * Other games: 20 * Total matches: 29 * Test points: 25pts (5t, 0c, 0p, 0dg) * Other game points: 65pts (13t, 0c, 0p, 0dg) * Total points: 90pts (18t, 0c, 0p, 0dg) Ref:

Retirement

On retiring from playing in 2005. Rush became assistant to

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 ...

. In 2010 Rush became owner operator of the Browns Bay franchise of the New World Supermarket chain and in February 2014 took over the New World store in Kaikohe. On 17 September 2017 Rush took over ownership of New World, Regent in Whangarei. In 2020, he completed season 1 of ''Match Fit'', and revealed he had hip and knee replacements. Despite that, his metabolic age was 40 as a 58-year-old, the oldest member of the playing squad, and was by far the fittest player in the team. However, he had been sidelined with

heel spur A calcaneal spur (also known as a heel spur) is a bony outgrowth from the calcaneal tuberosity (heel bone). Calcaneal spurs are typically detected by Radiography, x-ray examination. It is a form of exostosis. When a foot is exposed to constant St ...

since week 2.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rush, Eric 1965 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union wings North Harbour rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Māori All Blacks players Rugby sevens players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Rugby sevens players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for New Zealand People educated at Tangaroa College New Zealand international rugby sevens players New Zealand male rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games gold medallists in rugby sevens Rugby union players from the Northland Region Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games 1995 Rugby World Cup players Chiefs (Super Rugby) players University of Auckland alumni New Zealand lawyers Auckland rugby union players Rugby union flankers New Zealand businesspeople in retailing 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen