Kylem Francis Te Riri O'Donnell (born 1 August 1989) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

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 who currently plays as a halfback for in New Zealand's domestic

Mitre 10 Cup The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in traditional Christianity. Mi ...

. He is also a former All Blacks Sevens representative.

Early career

Raised in

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

, O'Donnell attended

Hamilton Boys' High School Hamilton Boys' High School (Māori language, Māori: ''Te Kura Tamatāne o Kirikiriroa'') is a boys' secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand and is the largest secondary school in the Waikato region. The school was estab ...

and played 47 games for the 1st XV along with younger brother Declan, who also went on to become a professional rugby player. O'Donnell was an NZ under 20s trialist in 2008 and was named as a non-travelling reserve for the IRB Under 20 World cup 2009 in Japan, alongside Cody Rei, who later joined the full Squad. Not being recognized by Waikato Academy until after making the NZ under 20s trials, O'Donnell decided to shift to Taranaki in 2009 after school, in pursuit of an ITM Cup contract. After a good local season with the Clifton Rugby club, he was signed for the 2009 Taranaki ITM Cup Squad. He made his debut for the Bulls in a match against in

Pukekohe Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. The town is located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. The hills of Puke ...

Senior career

O'Donnell spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons with Taranaki and during that time his appearances were largely confined to cameos from the replacements bench. He was also signed by the Taranki Bulls for the 2011 and 2012 season. O'Donnells Career was hindered in 2011, Plagued by a foot injury and coupled by a brawl with bouncers in an incident at A Hamilton Bar with his brother Declan, he made only 2 appearances off the bench in 2011. An injury in preseason training leading into a ranfurly shield defense against whanganui also set O'Donnell back in 2012. Where he was then "leap-frogged" by Jamison Gibson-Park. O'Donnell eventually returned to his home town Hamilton to play for Waikato, for whom he started the first 4 games at half back. He was replaced by Brad weber who was a late addition to the itm cup squad. O'Donnell played an additional 3 games off the bench as a winger replacement in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. O’Donnell spent the rest of the season playing Waikato development. The following year O’Donnell did not secure a contract for Waikato or Taranaki

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. After a year away from provincial rugby, he returned to Taranaki in

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, providing cover for the injured Jamison Gibson-Park. His real breakthrough in the 15-man game came in

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 ...

when he was able to win the starting number 9 jersey at Taranaki from

Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi Hohepa Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi () (born 31 March 1995) is a New Zealand rugby union player who currently plays as a half-back for in the Mitre 10 Cup and the Crusaders in Super Rugby. In 2018 Tahuriorangi was selected to play for the All Blacks. ...

and put in a series of good performances in a season which saw the Bulls reach the Premiership semi-finals. O'Donnell broke his leg in the quarter-final against Auckland and missed the semi-final which Taranaki lost to the Tasman Makos. O'Donnell started his super rugby season recovering from his broken leg and made no appearances for the Hurricanes in 2017. Returning with a vengeance for the Mitre 10 Cup at the end of the season O'Donnell put together some great cameo performances for the Port Taranaki Bulls, But was unable to cement a regular starting spot from

. At the conclusion of Mitre 10 Cup O'Donnell was a late addition to the Chiefs pre-season as a replacement player for 2018. Yet again, O'Donnell went full circle and made the decision to move back home to Waikato. Plagued by Achilles tendinitis he made only 4 appearances for the Waikato team and starting only 2 games. He also played in the final off the bench at FMG STADIUM. Waikato went on to win the championship division over Otago. In 2020 O'Donnell made a return to Taranaki where he made an appearance twice off the bench. One game against Otago where Taranaki were defeated in a match for the Ranfurly Shield. The other against Northland.

Super Rugby

After a long and meandering provincial career, O'Donnell finally landed a Super Rugby contract with the defending champions, the in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

International

O'Donnell was an All Blacks Sevens representative from 2011 until 2012, competing in 5

World Rugby Sevens 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 World ...

events and scoring 3 tries. He also holds the All Blacks Sevens all time beep test record. With an unprecedented score of 15.6 the highest Sir Gordon tietjens had ever seen in a NZ sevens camp. He said "Caleb Ralph nearly hit 15 once and Roger Randle is also right up there but 15.6 is staggering". (from The Daily Post -Rotorua, Jan 21, 2012). https://www.topendsports.com/testing/results/beep-test.htm https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=10805415

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ODonnell, Kylem 1989 births Living people New Zealand international rugby sevens players New Zealand male rugby sevens players New Zealand people of Irish descent New Zealand rugby union players Ngāti Porou people Ngāti Tūwharetoa people People educated at Hamilton Boys' High School Rugby union players from Thames, New Zealand Rugby union scrum-halves Taranaki rugby union players Waikato rugby union players 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen