Paul Rauhihi (born 3 July 1973) is a New Zealand former 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 who represented

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 ...

. Rauhihi played in both the

National Rugby League 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 ...

(NRL) and

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

as a .

Background

Rauhihi was born in Porirua, New Zealand. He was an orphan and was adopted early in life.

Playing career

New Zealand career

Rauhihi's junior clubs were the Cottingham Tigers and St George club 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 ...

.Coffey and Wood ''The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League'' He then joined the New Zealand Navy and played for the Northcote Tigers and North Harbour Sea Eagles before becoming an Auckland Warriors junior in 1994.''Lion Red Rugby League Annual 1994'', New Zealand Rugby Football League, 1994. p.102 Rauhihi was part of the Northcote side that won the Fox Memorial in 1994. After leaving the navy to concentrate on his rugby league career, Rauhihi played in 17 reserve grade games for the Warriors in 1996 and was a part of the Reserve Grade side that lost the 1997 grand final. In 1998 he played for

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

before signing with the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

.''New Zealand Rugby League Annual '98'', New Zealand Rugby Football League, 1998. p.144

Australian career

Rauhihi was released by Melbourne during the 1999 NRL season to sign with

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

. He made his first grade début against Western Suburbs at Energy Australia Stadium on 27 June 1999. The following year, he played in Newcastle's preliminary final loss against the

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

. In 2001, he moved to the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...

. In the same year, he played in Canterbury's 52-10 elimination final loss against Cronulla-Sutherland. In the 2002 NRL season, Rauhihi played 23 games for Canterbury in what turned out to be one of the club's most turbulent. After going on a 16-game winning streak, it was discovered by the NRL that Canterbury had exceeded the NRL's salary cap by $2 million over 3 years including undisclosed payments made to players. As a result, the NRL fined Canterbury $500,000 and stripped them of all their 37 competition points meaning that the club would finish the 2002 season with the wooden spoon. Rauhihi then moved to the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

, winning the club's player of the year award in 2003. He also captained the side due to regular captain Paul Bowman being out with injury in 2004, and also when Travis Norton was out due to injury in 2005. He played at in the

2005 NRL Grand Final The 2005 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the National Rugby League's 2005 NRL season, 2005 Telstra Premiership season. It was played on the night of Sunday, 2 October at Sydney's Telstra Stadium between the W ...

, the Cowboys' first, which they lost to the Wests Tigers.

English career

Rauhihi moved to England after the 2005 grand final loss, joining the

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

where he was given the number 10 jersey. In 2009, after a number of seasons plagued by back injury, Rauhihi retired.

Representative career

In 1996 Rauhihi played for the New Zealand Māori side that toured PNG and then competed in the Pacific Challenge Series. In 2000 he was part of the side in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

. Between 2002 and 2005 he played in seventeen matches for the

New Zealand national rugby league team The New Zealand national rugby league team () has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the Kiwi (bird), native bird of that name. The team' ...

, including captaining the side in the 2004 Tr-nations series due to an injury to Ruben Wiki. He was also part of the 2005 Tri Nations squad that won the competition.

Match Fit

In 2023, Rauhihi participated in season 3 of ''Match Fit'', where former rugby players return to play against the Australian counterparts. He joined in the first season that featured former

stars. On episode 5, he revealed that he was an orphan and was adopted, and he buried his debut Kiwis jersey with his adopted father when he died when Rauhihi was in his 20's. He also revealed that he prefers weights and power training over running.

References

External links

Profile at warringtonwolves.comPaul Rauhihi NRL Player ProfilePaul Rauhihi Bulldogs Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rauhihi, Paul 1973 births Living people 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand Māori rugby league team players New Zealand national rugby league team captains New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players Newcastle Knights players North Harbour rugby league team players North Queensland Cowboys players Northcote Tigers players Royal New Zealand Navy personnel Rugby league players from Porirua Rugby league props St. George Saints players Taranaki rugby league team players Warrington Wolves players