We were very fortunate to have Mr Rob Thompson as a guest at assembly this morning to present his recent Māori All Blacks jersey to the school.
Mr Rob Thompson attended Boys’ High from 2005-2009 and he was in Vernon Club.
Mr Thompson played for the 2nd XV in 2008, where he was coached by Mr van Stipriaan and Mr Bovey, and was in the 1st XV of 2009, a team that contained five young men who would go on to play Super Rugby.
The Palmerstonian of 2009 noted that Mr Thompson was “a naturally gifted athlete who is very agile and able to run good attacking lines. He has good speed, is strong and has the ability to stand and offload in the tackle. A deft runner with ball in hand and ability to beat the tackler with footwork who proved to be devastating for many opposition teams from counter attack”.
After leaving school Mr Thompson made his debut for Canterbury in the NPC, or ITM Cup, in 2013 and was to play for Canterbury 49 times between 2013 and 2017. He made his debut in Super Rugby for the Crusaders in 2014 but it was a move south to the Highlanders in 2016 that saw Mr Thompson’s career gain real impetus. Mr Thompson has been with the Highlanders since 2016, and has just finished his fourth season with the team and he has gone on to play 48 Super Rugby matches.
Mr Thompson returned to Manawatu for last year’s Mitre 10 Cup where he linked up with Old Boy and current member of staff Mr Mafi in the Turbos midfield. He made his debut for the Māori All Blacks in 2017 and recently featured in the matches against Fiji during the holidays.
2019 1st XV Captain, Tamati Ruawai, accepted Mr Thompson's Māori All Blacks Jersey on behalf of the school.
Once again, we thank Mr Thompson and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours and we look forward to watching his successes.
