Michael Joseph Deans Hobbs (born 18 October 1987) is a retired professional

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. Hobbs previously played for the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and Highlanders 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 has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition. He also played for the Wellington Lions in the Air New Zealand Cup. His playing positions are First Five-Eighth and Inside Centre.

Personal life

Hobbs was born in

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 ...

, New Zealand and was Head Boy at Wellington College in 2005. He is the son of former All Black Captain and NZ Rugby chairman

Jock Hobbs Michael James Bowie Hobbs (15 February 1960 – 13 March 2012), known as Jock Hobbs, was a New Zealand rugby union player and administrator. A flanker, he played for Canterbury and won 21 caps for the New Zealand national team, the All ...

and the nephew of former All Black fullback and Australian

coach

Robbie Deans Robert Maxwell Deans (born 4 September 1959) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, currently the head coach of Japanese club Saitama Wild Knights. He was head coach of the Australian national team between 2008 and 2013. Deans prev ...

Career

Hobbs represented both New Zealand Schools and New Zealand Under-19s before moving to Brisbane, Australia to undertake study at the University of Queensland. He debuted for the Lions in the 2008 season after spending the two previous years contracted to the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...

Rugby Academy. He also had a stint with the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels were an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria that competed in the Super Rugby competition. The Rebels made their debut in SANZAAR, SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. T ...

in the inaugural Australian Rugby Championship season. He went on to be drafted by the

for the 2009 Super 14 season. After starting the 2010 Super rugby season by scoring four tries in the first three games, Hobbs suffered a fractured

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

in his back and underwent spine surgery in Los Angeles. He studied at the University of Texas at Austin on exchange while he completed his rehab. In 2011, Hobbs re-signed with the Blues and NZRU for two more years. During the 2012 Super rugby season, Hobbs's father Jock died after a long battle with leukaemia. The 2012 ITM Cup saw Hobbs move north from Wellington to North Harbour. He played the first 3 matches before limping out of the

Counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

match early with ankle damage. Hobbs returned to the side for their final game against Tasman. At the end of the season he was granted an early release from his NZRU contract to take some time away from rugby. In March 2013, Hobbs signed a one-year deal with the Panasonic Wild Knights in the Japan Top League. Panasonic won both the Japan Top League and Japan Cup championships in the 2013/14 season. At the completion of his contract with Panasonic, Hobbs signed with the NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes to remain in Japan for another two seasons. After helping guide the NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes to their first ever win in the Japan Cup wildcard playoffs during the 2014/15 season, Hobbs was unable to take the field in the 2015/16 season due to undergoing shoulder surgery. In 2016, Hobbs announced that he was taking a break from rugby to study for an MBA at Stanford University.

References

External links

Blues Profile

Wellington Lions Player Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobbs, Michael New Zealand rugby union players Wellington rugby union players Highlanders (rugby union) players 1987 births Living people North Harbour rugby union players Blues (Super Rugby) players Saitama Wild Knights players NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes Osaka players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union centres New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan Rugby union players from Wellington City Deans family Harper family