Rather than the usual path to national honours, through age-group selections, Craig Newby emerged as a fine, all-purpose loose forward through early selection in New Zealand sevens squads.

Gordon Tietjens detected him as an exceptional prospect while Newby was still at Rotorua Boys High School and as early as 1999 had him in his national sevens squads. Newby became a sevens regular for the next two or three years, being a member of the squad which won a gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

But his sevens involvement may have been at small handicap to what subsequent success he would have in the 15s game. Newby enjoyed an excellent career, giving notable service in particular to North Harbour and Otago at national provincial championship levels and for the Highlanders and was rewarded with an All Black jersey.

However, he never quite overcame a perception that his early sevens training, with its emphasis on aerobic fitness, had given him a greyhound build. That was despite the fact that towards the end of his 15s career in New Zealand Newby packed more than 100kg onto his near 1.90m frame.

Newby was capable of playing either side of the scrum but it may have been that on the open-side he found himself disadvantaged against other outstanding loose forwards like Richie McCaw, Marty Holah and Daniel Braid.

His All Black career therefore was not extensive. He made three test appearances in the 2004 and 2006 seasons, but never started a game and his total time on the field amounted to only 41 minutes.

He came on as a blood-bin substitute for Holah in the 2004 international against England at Eden Park and later that year replaced Holah for the last 21 minutes of the tri-nations test against South Africa in Johannesburg. His last game was the final 13 minutes of the Eden Park international against Ireland in 2006.

Newby’s provincial debut was for Harbour in 2000, as a member of the North Shore club, and he had the last of his 49 games for the union in 2004, moving to Otago permanently for the 2005 season.

He made his Super 12 debut for the Blues in 2001, but only had four starts in his seven appearances, and was more comfortable with the greater opportunities he received in the Highlanders when he first went there as a draft player in 2002.

After a season in England in 2002-03 with Newcastle he returned in the draft to the Highlanders in 2004. While in Otago he was a team-mate of a similar type of loose forward in Josh Blackie. The two, however, worked well in tandem, giving their sides at provincial and Super levels an edge with their speed to breakdowns and their aggressive defence. Frequently, Newby, with a no-nonsense approach, captained both Otago and the Highlanders.

Other than his brief appearances for the All Blacks, the sevens and a trial in 2004, Newby’s only other national involvement was with the Junior All Blacks in 2005 in two matches against Australia A.

He took up a contract with Leicester in England in 2008, having taken his Otago appearances to 29 and his Super 12/14 appearances to 74.

Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

FULL NAME

Craig Alan Newby

BORN

Friday, 27 July 1979 in Rotorua

AGE

31

PHYSICAL

1.90m, 100kg

POSITION

Flanker

LAST SCHOOL

Rotorua Boys' High

RUGBY CLUB
(First made All Blacks from)

North Shore

PROVINCES

North Harbour, Otago

ALL BLACK DEBUT

Saturday, 19 June 2004
v England at Auckland
aged 24 years, 328 days

INTERNATIONAL DEBUT

Saturday, 19 June 2004
v England at Auckland
aged 24 years, 328 days

LAST TEST

Saturday, 17 June 2006
v Ireland at Auckland
aged 26 years, 325 days

ALL BLACK TESTS

3 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK GAMES

0 (0 as Captain)

TOTAL ALL BLACK MATCHES

3 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK TEST POINTS

0pts

ALL BLACK GAME POINTS

0pts

TOTAL ALL BLACK POINTS

0pts

ALL BLACK NUMBER

1041

The All Black Games that Newby played.
(+) = substitute; (-) = replaced

Click on the date to be taken to the Match Card

2004

 19 Jun vs England at Auckland 36-12 (+) 

 14 Aug vs South Africa at Johannesburg 26-40 (+) 

2006

 17 Jun vs Ireland at Auckland 27-17 (+) 

Newby did not score any points for the All Blacks.

Test Record by Nation

P

W

D

L

t

c

p

dg

pts

England

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Ireland

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

South Africa

1

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

Totals

3

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0