Jason Rutledge (born 15 December 1977) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

player who played provincial rugby for Southland, and was in the

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 previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

team the Highlanders. Rutledge is widely known as New Zealands best hooker to have never played for the All Blacks. His nickname is Cabbage. Jason is the son of 1978-1980 All Black

Leicester Rutledge Leicester Malcolm Rutledge (born 12 April 1952) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. A flanker, Rutledge represented Southland at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, from 1978 to 1980. ...

who also played over 100 matches for Southland from 1972 to 1983. Rutledge made his debut for the Highlanders in 2004, but after playing two games that season, did not return to the Highlanders until the 2009 season. He came on as a substitution for David Hall in the season opener against the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inhab ...

, scoring a try minutes from full-time which briefly put the Highlanders in the lead. On 13 September 2020, aged 42, Jason came on the field as a replacement for Greg Pleasants-Tate in the 72nd minute in Southland's first

Mitre 10 Cup The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...

fixture for the season, against Hawke's Bay. He helped Southland defend their line for a 16–10 victory. This appearance, 20 years after his debut for Southland, made him the province's oldest player.

References

External links

Highlanders ProfileRugby Southland Profile
1977 births Living people Rugby union players from Invercargill New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union hookers Highlanders (rugby union) players Southland rugby union players {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1970s-stub