Robert Blair "Robbie" Robinson (born 22 August 1989 in Westport,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

) is a professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

player who represents

Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi (also called Toyota Jido Shokki as distinct from Toyota, which was renamed Toyota Verblitz) is a Japanese rugby team owned by Toyota Industries. They were promoted to Japan's top-flight league Top League for the ...

in the Japan.

Playing career

Robinson made his debut for Southland in round three

2008 Air New Zealand Cup The 2008 Air New Zealand Cup was a provincial rugby union competition involving 14 teams from New Zealand. Matches started on Thursday 31 July 2008, and continued until the final on 25 October 2008. This season was the third of the expanded co ...

against the Hawke's Bay Magpies. He played majority of his games at fullback rather than his favoured

first five-eighth 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– ...

position due to the competition's top scorer Blair Stewart having cemented the role for the season. In 2009 Robinson was selected for the New Zealand Under 20s team for the Junior World Cup in Japan. Robinson played the majority of the tournament at fullback due to the team's captain Aaron Cruden being a specialist first five-eighth. The team went through the tournament unbeaten, defeating

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

44–28 in the final. His season continued with Southland making a great start to the competition after being second after 8 rounds of the

2009 Air New Zealand Cup The 2009 Air New Zealand Cup was the 33rd provincial rugby union competition, the fourth since the competition reconstruction in 2006, involving the top 14 provincial unions in New Zealand. It ran for 15 weeks from 30 July to 7 November. It was ...

. However a string of bad performances led to the team needing to win their final round Ranfurly Shield challenge against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

. The team came out of the game victorious with Robinson kicking three penalties leading the Stags to a win and ending the 50 year shield drought. His form led to him securing a Highlanders contract for the 2010 and 2011 Super Rugby seasons. In 2012, after two years with the Highlanders, he signed with the Chiefs, with his contract extending until the 2014 season. He scored the Chiefs' winning try in the 2013 Super Rugby final in a 27–22 win against the Brumbies. He was released by the Chiefs in 2014 after a frustrating injury that kept him out for the entire campaign. On June 24 2022, he was announced as having signed for the Southland Stags for the 2022 Bunnings NPC.

References

External links

Chiefs profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Robbie 1989 births Living people Black Rams Tokyo players Chiefs (rugby union) players Expatriate rugby union players in Japan Highlanders (rugby union) players Māori All Blacks players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Japan New Zealand rugby union players North Harbour rugby union players People educated at Southland Boys' High School Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union players from Westport, New Zealand Southland rugby union players Sunwolves players Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi players Toyota Verblitz players