Melodie Robinson (born 25 May 1973) is a New Zealand sports journalist and presenter, and former international

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 for the

New Zealand women's national rugby union team The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns (), represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tour ...

. She played 18 tests for the New Zealand women's team, the Black Ferns, from 1996 to 2002. Robinson won two world cups in that time, playing blindside or openside flanker. She also represented New Zealand in sevens at the Hong Kong 7s and Japan 7s.

Life

While playing rugby she gained a degree from 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 ...

(BA PHSE) and a journalism certificate from Wellington Polytechnic in 1996. Her first work was in radio, working at the

press gallery {{Short description, Parliamentary reporters The press gallery is the part of a parliament, or other legislative body, where political journalists are allowed to sit or gather to observe and then report speeches and events. This is generally one of ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

covering politics. Her natural leanings towards sports led her to be the online sports producer for Xtramsn.co.nz from 1998 to 2002. While working at Xtra she produced websites like allblacks.com, teamnewzealand.com. Robinson went to

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

in 2002 commentating and presenting for the

Super 12 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 ...

and NPC. She was the regular host of Super Rugby and ITM Cup build ups, also hosted the ANZ Championship and international netball build ups, has hosted the Halberg Awards, and is a regular on World Rugby's Women's Sevens Series as a commentator. She was also a journalist for Sky TV NZ on events like the Commonwealth Games and Netball World Cup 2015. A former winner of the Miss Canterbury

Beauty Pageant A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes sol ...

Robinson balanced her full-time role with Sky Sport with part-time study at Auckland University's Business School for her PostGrad Diploma. In 2019, she was on the first panel to determine the

World Rugby World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

women's-15s player-of-the-year award with Danielle Waterman,

Will Greenwood William John Heaton Greenwood, Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 20 October 1972) is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequin F.C., Harlequins and was a member of England's 2003 Rugby World Cup, 20 ...

, Liza Burgess, Lynne Cantwell, Fiona Coghlan, Gaëlle Mignot, Jillion Potter, Stephen Jones, and Karl Te Nana. She was also on the World Rugby Men's 15s Player of the Year award voting panel. Robinson was appointed TVNZ's new general manager, sport and events, also in 2019. Robinson is a castaway on the 2022 series of the New Zealand reality television show ''Celebrity Treasure Island''.

Notes

1973 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand women's international rugby union players New Zealand female rugby union players New Zealand journalists University of Otago alumni Rugby union players from New Plymouth Participants in New Zealand reality television series {{NewZealand-writer-stub