Liam Justin Messam (born 25 March 1984) is a retired 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 who played in the TOP14 for RC Toulonnais. In

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 ...

, he previously played for the , and for

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 ...

in the

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Teknologi Mara, a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia * Institute for Information, Tel ...

. Messam predominantly plays as a blindside flanker but can fill in at Number 8 as well as openside flanker. After the retirement of then Chiefs captain

Mils Muliaina Junior Malili "Mils" Muliaina (born 31 July 1980) is a former professional rugby union player who most recently played for San Francisco Rush in the US PRO Rugby competition. He played primarily as a fullback, though he has also played as a ...

, Messam was named the team's new co-captain from

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

onwards, alongside Aaron Cruden. He is also a professional boxer.

Rugby career

National team

In October 2008, Messam was selected in

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 ...

's end of year tour squad to tour Hong Kong and Europe. He played one test 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 ...

and one match against

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

. He subsequently appeared several more times for New Zealand but was dropped a month out of the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

in favour of Victor Vito. Since his debut in 2008 he won 40 test caps for the All Blacks. In 2004, at the age of just 20, he captained the New Zealand sevens team to its fifth IRB Sevens World Series title and in 2005 led the team to the final. Messam also played in the New Zealand sevens teams that won gold at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

and

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, were an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth that was held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 201 ...

. In 2004 he was also named New Zealand Sevens Player of the Year.

2015–present

Messam was selected for the 2015 Rugby World Cup as part of the All Blacks' 31-man squad. After the tournament was finished, Messam announced his intention to compete in rugby sevens for the Rio Olympics 2016. Messam was later named in the All Black Sevens' squad for the Wellington Sevens alongside All Blacks teammate,

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny William Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player. He is only the second person to represent New Zealand in rugby union after first playing for the cou ...

. After the Rio Olympics 2016, Messam played for the Chiefs in

2012 Super Rugby season The 2012 Super Rugby season was the second season of 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 has previously included tea ...

, when injuries greatly affected the loose forward's positions.

Leading of the Haka

Of the 43 tests he played in Messam was the

haka Haka (, ; singular ''haka'', in both Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English) are a variety of ceremonial dances in Māori culture. A performance art, hakas are often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the f ...

leader in 21 of them. He led 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 of the haka nine times; as well as the newer Kapa o Pango haka, twelve times (the third highest number led).

Professional boxing career

Messam made his professional boxing debut in January 2015 against Rhys Sullivan on a Sonny Bill Williams undercard. Messam won the fight by unanimous decision. Messam returned to the ring six years later to fight in a professional fight for charity to raise funds for Tauranga 8-year-old Antonio Pohatu-Barbarich who is being treated for brain cancer. Messam took on Joe Ageli in his return fight in April 2021, winning by unanimous decision. Since returning to professional boxing, he has started training with Hit Fitness HQ under retired professional boxing, Cairo George. In the same camp is Olympic Bronze medalist David Nyika. Messam returned one year later in New Plymouth, taking on Thomas Russell. Messam won his third professional fight by unanimous decision. After a charity fight under Fight for Life, Messam returned to the professional ring in July 2022 against Tussi Asafo. Messam won his first win by stoppage. In December, Messam finished his 2022 boxing year by taking on Mathew Matich. Messam won the fight by Unanimous Decision.

Record

Personal life

Messam's brother, Sam Messam, played in the

All Whites The New Zealand men's national football team () represents New Zealand in men's international football competitions. The team is governed by the governing body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Football (NZF), which is currently a memb ...

side at the 2008 London Olympics. Throughout his professional athlete career, Messam developed a preference for natural alternative health options to relieve both physical pain and mental challenges high-profile athletes experience. After witnessing the detrimental effect conventional pain relief and mental health medication has on close friends and family, Messam founded Ora CBD alongside Teddy Stanaway in 2020.

Maori

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

descent, Messam affiliates to the Ngāi Tūhoe

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

. Messam has stated that he also has Samoan and

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

heritage.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
He has played for the

New Zealand Maori New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

, including during the 2006 Churchill Cup and the 2010 centenary series, where he captained the side. In 2012 and 2013 Messam was awarded the Tom French Cup as Māori Player of the Year.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Messam, Liam 1984 births New Zealand rugby union players Māori All Blacks players New Zealand international rugby union players Chiefs (Super Rugby) players Waikato rugby union players Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Rugby sevens players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games New Zealand male rugby sevens players Rugby union flankers Rugby union number eights Rugby union players from Blenheim, New Zealand People educated at Rotorua Boys' High School Living people New Zealand international rugby sevens players Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for New Zealand Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Ngāi Tūhoe people Commonwealth Games gold medallists in rugby sevens RC Toulon players Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games 2015 Rugby World Cup players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in France 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen