11th August 2010

In Profile - Ruben Wiki

A New Zealand international representative centre-turned-prop forward, Ruben Wiki retired with the record for most number of international appearances of any rugby league player in history. At club level Wiki played for the Canberra Raiders, winning the 1994 NSWRL Premiership with them before finishing his career with the New Zealand Warriors. He currently works as the NZRL's High Performance Manager and a High Performance Assistant with the New Zealand Warriors.

Wiki, of Samoan and Maori heritage, played 55 test matches for New Zealand between 1994 and 2006, the most test matches played by any rugby league footballer in the world (as at April 2008). He captained the New Zealand national rugby league team in 18 of those tests.

Wiki will probably be remembered most as the captain of the Kiwi team that scored an historic 24–0 win over the Kangaroos in 2005. This was the first series win since 1978 and the first time in 20 years that New Zealand had kept Australia scoreless in a test match.

During that same period, his former junior Kiwi team mate Tana Umaga, was also captaining his team, the All Blacks to an undefeated tour of the England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

In 2002 and 2003 Wiki was named the Canberra Raiders' player of the year. In 2006, he was named in a Kiwi All Time XIII at a gala awards dinner celebrating New Zealand's centenary of rugby league alongside his good friend Stacey Jones. Wiki and Jones are the only recent players to be named in the side with the majority of the players being from the "immortal" 1950-60s side and the destructive 1980s team.

Wiki was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2007 for his services to rugby league.