Born in Auckland Carl Hoeft finished his education at Te Aroha College and from there represented New Zealand Secondary Schools in 1992. Other future stars in the side were Jonah Lomu, Jeff Wilson and Carlos Spencer. He made his debut in first class rugby as an 18 year old the following season with nine matches for Thames Valley and toured Australia for the second successive year, this time with the New Zealand Under 19 team. The frontrow in their Under 19 “test match” was Hoeft, Kees Meeuws and Anton Oliver, a trio who were to play many many matches together for Otago, the Highlanders and New Zealand.

A full season for Thames Valley in 1994 was followed by a big 1995. Carl Hoeft was a member of the New Zealand Colts team that played in and won the first Southern Hemisphere Under 21 tournament, staged that year in Argentina. Earlier in the season he had played for the NZ Under 21 White team that were runners up (to NZ Black) in a South Pacific Under 21 tournament also involving Tonga and Western Samoa. At NPC level he was a member of the Thames Valley team that won the Third Division title.

After finishing a plumbing apprenticeship Hoeft moved to Otago during 1996 and handled the step up to first division rugby well, immediately becoming a first choice player, both for Otago and during the following season for the Highlanders. His All Black debut came in 1998 with four games, the first two as a substitute, and he was a first choice player throughout 1999. In the buildup to the 1999 World Cup an image of the All Black front row of Carl Hoeft, Anton Oliver and Kees Meeuws, captioned “Black is Thicker than Blood”, was used on All Black posters and, even on the side of the Air New Zealand plane that took them to the World Cup. Sadly the All Blacks crashed and burned in the second half of their Cup semi-final against France.

Carl Hoeft remained the first choice All Black loosehead throughout the next two seasons, but did not make the end of season tour either year. In 2002 he shared propping duties in the Super 12 with Joe McDonnell, was the preferred choice for Otago but was not required for the All Blacks, with Dave Hewett and McDonnell chosen. He was recalled to the wider All Black squad in 2003, starting two matches and appearing once as a substitute.

Though he continued to give the Highlanders and Otago good service his only subsequent national involvement was as substitute in the 2004 All Black trial and with the New Zealand Juniors in Australia in 2005.

He left New Zealand during that season’s NPC to play for the Castres club in France, alongside longtime front row teammate Kees Meeuws. By a happy coincidence his last match for Otago also marked the return from a long injury break of his other front row partner Anton Oliver.

His career finished with 31 All Black matches, all but one of them tests. In addition he made 37 appearances for Thames Valley, over 70 for Otago, 98 for the Highlanders and won NPC titles with Thames Valley (3rd Div. 1995) amd Otago in 1998.

Profile by Bob Luxford
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

FULL NAME

Carl Henry Hoeft

BORN

Wednesday, 13 November 1974 in Auckland

AGE

35

PHYSICAL

1.84m, 115kg

POSITION

Prop

LAST SCHOOL

Te Aroha College

RUGBY CLUB
(First made All Blacks from)

Dunedin Pirates

PROVINCE

Otago

SUPER 14 TEAM

Highlanders

RUGBY NICKNAME

Bulldog

ALL BLACK DEBUT

Saturday, 27 June 1998
v England at Auckland
aged 23 years, 226 days

INTERNATIONAL DEBUT

Saturday, 27 June 1998
v England at Auckland
aged 23 years, 226 days

LAST TEST

Thursday, 20 November 2003
v France at Sydney
aged 29 years, 7 days

ALL BLACK TESTS

30 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK GAMES

1 (0 as Captain)

TOTAL ALL BLACK MATCHES

31 (0 as Captain)

ALL BLACK TEST POINTS

0pts

ALL BLACK GAME POINTS

0pts

TOTAL ALL BLACK POINTS

0pts

ALL BLACK NUMBER

971

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

Click on the date to be taken to the Match Card

1998

 27 Jun vs England at Auckland 40-10 (+) 

 1 Aug vs Australia at Christchurch 23-27 (+) 

 15 Aug vs South Africa at Durban 23-24  

 29 Aug vs Australia at Sydney 14-19 (-) 

1999

 11 Jun vs New Zealand 'A' at Christchurch 22-11  

 18 Jun vs Samoa at Albany 71-13 (-) 

 26 Jun vs France at Wellington 54-7  

 10 Jul vs South Africa at Dunedin 28-0  

 24 Jul vs Australia at Auckland 34-15 (-) 

 28 Aug vs Australia at Sydney 7-28  

 3 Oct vs Tonga at Bristol 45-9  

 9 Oct vs England at London 30-16  

 24 Oct vs Scotland at Edinburgh 30-18 (-) 

 31 Oct vs France at London 31-43  

 4 Nov vs South Africa at Cardiff 18-22 (+) 

2000

 24 Jun vs Scotland at Dunedin 69-20  

 1 Jul vs Scotland at Auckland 48-14 (-) 

 15 Jul vs Australia at Sydney 39-35 (-) 

 22 Jul vs South Africa at Christchurch 25-12 (-) 

 5 Aug vs Australia at Wellington 23-24 (-) 

 19 Aug vs South Africa at Johannesburg 40-46  

2001

 16 Jun vs Samoa at Albany 50-6  

 23 Jun vs Argentina at Christchurch 67-19 (-) 

 30 Jun vs France at Wellington 37-12  

 21 Jul vs South Africa at Cape Town 12-3  

 11 Aug vs Australia at Dunedin 15-23  

 25 Aug vs South Africa at Auckland 26-15  

 1 Sep vs Australia at Sydney 26-29  

2003

 21 Jun vs Wales at Hamilton 55-3  

 17 Oct vs Canada at Melbourne 68-6  

 20 Nov vs France at Sydney 40-13 (+) 

Hoeft did not score any points for the All Blacks.

Test Record by Nation

P

W

D

L

t

c

p

dg

pts

Argentina

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Australia

8

2

-

6

-

-

-

-

-

Canada

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

England

2

2

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

France

4

3

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

Samoa

2

2

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Scotland

3

3

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

South Africa

7

4

-

3

-

-

-

-

-

Tonga

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Wales

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Totals

30

20

0

10

0

0

0

0

0