Sean Daniel Maitland (born 14 September 1988) 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 ...

-born

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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. He plays for

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

in the

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

. He previously played for

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

and before that for

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

in the

PRO12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

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 ...

and

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in the

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 ...

. His regular playing positions are Wing and Full back.

Early life

Maitland was born in

Tokoroa Tokoroa is the fourth-largest town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand and largest settlement in the South Waikato District. Located 30 km southwest of Rotorua and 20 km south of Putāruru, close to the foot of th ...

, New Zealand, on 14 September 1988. He attended

Hamilton Boys' High School Hamilton Boys' High School (Māori language, Māori: ''Te Kura Tamatāne o Kirikiriroa'') is a boys' secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand and is the largest secondary school in the Waikato region. The school was estab ...

where he played in the first XV and competed in athletics, recording a personal best of 11.29 and 22.30 seconds for the 100m and 200m respectively, and threw the discus 45.47m. Maitland is half-Scottish and is of Samoan and Maori descent from his mother's side. He is the cousin of New Zealand born, Australian rugby union player

Quade Cooper Quade Santini Cooper (born 5 April 1988) is a professional rugby union player and occasional boxing, boxer. Although born in New Zealand, he has represented Australia national rugby union team, Australia in rugby at international level. He curre ...

. Maitland and cousin Cooper also grew up with future Kiwi Rugby League international Isaac John.

Club career

Maitland spent 2005 and 2006 in the New Zealand Schools team and was a member of New Zealand under-19 World Cup winning side in 2007 and the New Zealand under-20 side in 2008 winning the IRB Junior World Championship. Sean scored four tries against teams from Argentina, Ireland and Wales. One of his teammates was John Hardie who he would go on to play with in the Scotland Rugby Team. Maitland debuted for

in 2006, and made his

debut for the Crusaders against the

ACT Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses wh ...

in 2008 and played in every Crusaders match that year. In 2010, he was selected for the

New Zealand Maori New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

where he impressed, scoring a try against Ireland. On 11 March 2011 he scored four tries in a game against the Brumbies, equaling the record for the most tries scored in a Super Rugby match. Maitland joined

in 2012, and won his first cap for Scotland at the start of the

2013 Six Nations Championship The 2013 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2013 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 14th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship ...

. After 3 years playing for Glasgow Warriors, Maitland moved to

, and in 2016 to

. During his time at Saracens he has won three Premiership titles in 2018, 2019 and 2023, scoring a try in the 2019 final. He also helped Saracens win the European Champions Cup in 2019, scoring a try in the final. He had previously missed Saracens' victory in the 2017 European Champions Cup final through injury.

International career

On 30 April 2013, Maitland was announced in the British and Irish Lions squad for the tour of Australia later that year. The tour marked a possible first encounter with cousin Quade Cooper in the test arena, having played one another before at Super Rugby level. The two never met in-game as Cooper was controversially left out of the extended Wallaby squad for the series, and Maitland never took to the field in the one test that he was on the bench. Maitland was not selected in the team to play 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 ...

mid-week game, in which Cooper captained the Reds for the first time. The two would go on to play against each other in November 2013, when Scotland lost to Australia in the end-of-year-internationals Maitland played in the

Rugby World Cup 2015 The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

, in which Scotland reached the quarter-finals. He was controversially sin binned for a supposed deliberate knock-on in the quarter-finals. Scotland eventually went on to lose the match 35–34, ending their Rugby World Cup.

Personal life

Maitland qualifies for Scotland by his Glaswegian grandparents who emigrated to New Zealand in the 1960s. Maitland said "My granddad always reminded me that I was part Scottish and that I should never forget that." On Maitland's maternal grandfather's side, Sean is also closely related to 'Smoking Joe' Stanley of New Zealand All Black fame in the mid 1980s–1990 on his Samoan side. In 2009, Maitland was a finalist in the Cleo New Zealand Bachelor of the Year competition. In November 2013, Maitland and three other Scottish rugby players were charged with assault following an incident outside a Glasgow takeaway shop in August, although these were ultimately dropped and Maitland faced no further action. In October 2020 Maitland was charged by the RFU for “conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Union” for breaking COVID-19 regulations whilst on duty with the Barbarians.

International tries

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maitland, Sean 1988 births Living people British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Scotland Canterbury rugby union players Crusaders (rugby union) players Glasgow Warriors players Māori All Blacks players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Scotland New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent New Zealand people of Scottish descent New Zealand rugby union players Ngāpuhi people People educated at Hamilton Boys' High School Rugby union players from Tokoroa Rugby union wings Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players Stanley family (rugby) London Irish players 2015 Rugby World Cup players 2019 Rugby World Cup players