Murphy Vaiaoga Utuariki Taramai (born 17 August 1992) 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, of Cook Islands and Samoan heritage, who currently plays as a loose forward 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 ...

and for the in the international

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 previously represented the All Blacks Sevens team during the

2014–15 Sevens World Series The 2014–15 Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 16th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national rugby sevens teams. The Sevens World Series has been run by World Rugby since 19 ...

Youth career

Taramai was initially a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer of some pedigree during his days attending

Upper Hutt College Upper Hutt College is a state co-educational secondary school located in Trentham in the city of Upper Hutt, New Zealand. It opened in 1962 as the city's second state secondary school, supplementing Heretaunga College in Wallaceville. As of , t ...

just outside 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 ...

. His side remained 3 years unbeaten with Taramai playing a key role in the side. This form earned him a trial with

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

side, the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

in 2011. Unfortunately for him, things didn't work out as well as expected in Australia and he returned home to New Zealand in 2012 and turned his attention to

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

Domestic Sevens career

Upon returning to New Zealand in 2012 he began playing sevens rugby with Wellington and was a member of the side which lifted the national title in 2014.

Senior career

Taramai played one game for during their largely chaotic and ill-fated campaign in

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 ...

. Unable to earn a contract in 2015, he headed north to join up with where he enjoyed a memorable debut season 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 ...

. He started all 12 matches as Harbour lifted the Mitre 10 Cup Championship and earned promotion to the Premiership ahead of the 2017 season.

Super Rugby

Taramai's immediate impact at Mitre 10 Cup level with North Harbour saw him swiftly receive attention from

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 ...

-based Super Rugby franchise, the , and he was named as a member of their squad for the

2017 Super Rugby season The 2017 Super Rugby season was the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the second season featuring an expanded ...

International

Taramai represented New Zealand at sevens level between 2014 and 2015, appearing at 4 tournaments in which he played 19 matches and scored 1 try.

Career honours

North Harbour * Mitre 10 Cup Championship –

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taramai, Murphy 1992 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union number eights Wellington rugby union players North Harbour rugby union players People educated at Upper Hutt College New Zealand international rugby sevens players New Zealand male rugby sevens players Rugby union flankers Blues (Super Rugby) players American Raptors players Hurricanes (rugby union) players Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks players Sportspeople from Upper Hutt New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan Expatriate rugby union players in the United States 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen Samoan rugby union players Samoa international rugby union players