Caleb Ralph

Competent player though he was, Caleb Ralph would be on few short lists as being among the all time New Zealand three-quarter greats. Yet for durability, variety and in gaining major honours there have been few New Zealand players, even some of the most legendary, who have matched  Ralph’s career.

He played for four different provinces, Bay of Plenty, Auckland, Canterbury and Tasman, three Super 12/14 franchises, the Chiefs, the Blues and the Crusaders and achieved national representation at secondary schools, under 19, colts, New Zealand A or Junior All Blacks, sevens, Maori and, of course, All Black levels.

And for most of these he achieved trophies which have eluded some of the game’s most illustrious names. He was in three NPC title winning sides (Auckland in 1999 and Canterbury in 2001 and 2004), in two Canterbury sides which won the Ranfurly Shield (2000 and 2004), in champion Crusaders squads (1999-2000-02-04-06-08) and in 1998 he won a gold medal in the sevens side at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Tall at more than 1.90m and with the slender build of one who had been a successful middle distance athlete as a teenager, Ralph was marked for stardom at an early age when he came to prominence in his native Rotorua as a member of the Western Heights High School first XV.

He was a national secondary schools (1995) and under 19 (1996) representative and was aged only 18 when he played his early representative rugby for Bay of Plenty. He played 25 games for the Bay in 1996-97 (New Zealand Colts 1997) before moving to Auckland in 1998, when he was promoted unexpectedly into the All Blacks for his test debut against England at Eden Park.

Playing at centre, Ralph had a quiet game, handicapped by an All Black side struggling, as it did for all that season, to find full capacity. He was a casualty of the general turmoil of 1998 and was not recalled to the All Blacks until the 2001 season. He went on the short end-of-year tour of Britain, playing in the midweek games against Ireland A and Scotland A.

His consistency and solid defensive play with Canterbury and the Crusaders had always impressed Robbie Deans and Deans’ term as All Blacks back coach under John Mitchell coincided with Ralph’s return as a wing to test rugby in 2002 and 2003. He played seven of the domestic, tri-nations tests of 2002 scoring four tries and had another six tests, including four at the World Cup in which he scored another four tries, in 2003.

Ralph’s early matches in the Super 12 in 1997 and 1998 were with the Chiefs and the Blues, but in 1999 he went to the Crusaders in the draft. He continued to play for Auckland in the 1999 NPC, his 17th and last appearance for that union being that season’s championship final.

A permanent transfer south in 2000 saw him begin his long association with Canterbury rugby. He soon became a Crusaders’ backline mainstay, usually on the wing but occasionally in his old position at centre. Of his 135 games in Super rugby, in which he scored 58 tries, all but nine were for the Crusaders. And he assured himself of ever-lasting red-and-black affection when he scored Canterbury’s late match-winning try in the 2000 shield defence against Otago.

Even when he was out of the All Blacks Ralph remained in the national mix. He played for New Zealand A in 1998-2000, including a tour of Europe in the latter year, and, when the New Zealand A tag was changed, was a Junior All Black in the 2005-06 seasons. He played regularly for New Zealand Maori, and among his 13 games for that side were the high profile matches against Australia in 2001 and the Lions in 2005.

Ralph played the last of his 66 games for Canterbury in 2006, spending 2007 by making seven NPC appearances with the recently created Tasman union. After figuring in the 2008 Super 14 with the Crusaders Ralph ended his association with New Zealand rugby by moving to Japan. In all, he made 306 appearances at first class level in which he scored 135 tries.