Matt Berquist (born 11 May 1983 in

Waipukurau Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Tukituki River, 7 kilometres south of Waipawa and 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings, New ...

, New Zealand) is a

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 plays at

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

for Benetton Rugby Treviso in the Rabodirect Pro12.

Playing career

Provincial Rugby

Berquist attended the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

and represented

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, he transferred to

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay () is a region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region is named for Hawke Bay, which was named in honour of Edward Hawke. The region's main centres are the cities of Napier and Hastings, while the more rural ...

where he would blossom as a player, helping the Magpies turnaround from perennial struggles to

Air New Zealand Cup An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

semi-finalists in 2008 and 2009. During this time, Berquist earned a reputation as one of the best goal-kickers in the competition, finishing as the Cup's leading scorer in 2009. For the

2010 ITM Cup The 2010 ITM Cup season was the fifth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on July 29, when Taranaki hosted Northland. It involved the top fourteen rugby union ...

, Berquist transferred to

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. He again topped 100 points in the competition, including finally scoring his first provincial try in his 8th season in the competition.

Super Rugby

Berquist was initially a member of the Highlanders in 2004 while still playing for Otago, but he failed to see action in a single game. Berquist's strong performances for Hawke's Bay earned him a

Super 14 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 ...

contract with the Highlanders for the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

season. After starting the season as a bench player, he started 6 of the final 7 matches of the season at his preferred position of

. He shared goal-kicking duties with

Daniel Bowden Daniel Russell Bowden (born 1 April 1986) is a New Zealand rugby union player, currently playing for in the Mitre 10 Cup. Bowden played three seasons for the Northland Taniwha in the National Provincial Championship. He debuted at the age of ...

and finished the season with 49 points, including his first try in Super Rugby. For

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, Berquist faced increased competition for the starting fly-half position with the Highlanders from Michael Hobbs and Robbie Robinson, although he still managed to match his 2009 total with 6 starts. His goal-kicking opportunities decreased from 2009 due to the emergence of

Israel Dagg Israel Jamahl Akuhata Dagg (born 6 June 1988) is a former New Zealand rugby union player who played for the Crusaders in Super Rugby. He has also played for the New Zealand Sevens team, and represents Hawkes Bay in the ITM Cup. Dagg played i ...

as one of the top goal-kickers in Super 14. In

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, Berquist was back up for

Dan Carter Daniel William Carter (born 5 March 1982) is a New Zealand retired rugby union player. Carter played for the Crusaders in Super Rugby and for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks. He is the highest point scorer in test match rugby, a ...

at the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

European Rugby

Berquist signed for

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby () is one of the four professional provincial club rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the Leinster Branch, one of t ...

for the 2011–12

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

season. He was to play back up to

Johnny Sexton Jonathan Jeremiah Sexton (born 11 July 1985) is an Irish former professional rugby union player who played as a Fly-half (rugby union), fly-half and Captain (sports), captained the Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland national team from ...

. He spent almost his entire first season injured which allowed

Ian Madigan Ian Madigan (born 21 March 1989) is an Irish former professional rugby union player for Leinster, Bordeaux, Bristol Bears, Ulster and Ireland. His primary position was at fly-half, although he also played at centre and full-back. Club career Mad ...

to emerge in his absence. His contract was not renewed after his first season. He joined

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; also spelled ; ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. It is a luxu ...

in the summer of 2012 but similarly struggled to get any game action. Berquist joined Benetton Treviso in the summer of 2013.

References

External links

Leinster Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berquist, Matt Living people 1983 births New Zealand rugby union players University of Otago alumni Hawke's Bay rugby union players Otago rugby union players Auckland rugby union players Highlanders (rugby union) players Crusaders (rugby union) players Leinster Rugby players Biarritz Olympique players Benetton Rugby players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in France New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Italy New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Ireland Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks People from Waipukurau Rugby union players from Hawke's Bay