Jerry Collins

Jerry Collins
Date of birth	November 4 1980 (age 43)
Place of birth	Apia, Western Samoa
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	109 kg (240 lb)
Nickname	JC
Rugby union career
Position	Flanker
Provincial/State sides		Caps	(points)
1999-present	Wellington	47	(55)
correct as of 2007-06-08.
Super Rugby
2001-present	Hurricanes	74	(25)
Current local club:	Northern United
correct as of 2007-06-08.
National team(s)
2001-present	All Blacks	44	(10)
correct as of 2007-06-09.
Other Information
Occupation	Rubbish collector
School  attended	St Pat's Town; (Previously Tawa College)
University	Victoria University
Notable relatives	Tana Umaga (cousin)

Jerry Collins (born 4 November 1980 in Apia, Samoa) is a New Zealand rugby union footballer and currently plays for the national team, the All Blacks. He has been capped 44 times for his country.

Collins has been a stalwart at blind-side flanker for the All Blacks, since 2004. He can also cover No. 8 and openside flanker positions. He is regarded as one of the best players in his position in world rugby. He is revered for his tenacity, fierce physicality and ability to play through pain. He is also widely regarded as one of the most intimidating players in the rugby world with his brutal tackling, in which he displayed against Wales in 2003 where he knocked his opposite number Colin Charvis into unconsciousness. He is also the subject of some cult like worship in Wellington secondary schools as a result of the huge impact he has made since leaving and moving into the higher ranks of New Zealand rugby. Jerry is also famous for doing pre-season training as a garbage collector.

Representative history

Collins made New Zealand Secondary Schools through his performance in the 1st XV side at St. Patricks in Wellington for two seasons running in 1997 and 1998 and was Player of the Tournament at the 1999 World Junior Championships (Under-19) which New Zealand won, becoming the first player for that team to be called up to the All Blacks. Since debuting for the All Blacks in 2001, Collins has gone on to play 44 test matches, scoring two tries.

The worlds most feared player

Many have labelled Jerry Collins as the hardest hitter in world rugby. In 2005 he was nominated by Australian players in the Super 14 as their most feared opponent. Collins is famous for putting on brutal, bone crunching hits when needed. In the 2005 Phillips Tri-nations tournament Collins exhibited his brutal force when he knocked out Australian back Morgan Turinui with one of his trade mark hits. He has also taken a liking to the Welsh and in doing so checked Colin Charvis into hospital following a particularly hard tackle during the Welsh tour of New Zealand in 2003.

Trivia

Collins weighs 109 kg and is 1.91 metres tall, and is a cousin of former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga, who also played with him in the Hurricanes. He currently is listed to have the biggest biceps in the All Blacks squad, which are measured in at 52cm (21 inches) although he is said to be trying to reduce the size of his "guns" as he feels they were slightly affecting his tackling.

In June 2006, he captained the All Blacks in a one-off Test match against Argentina, where he lead his team to a 25-19 victory in Buenos Aires becoming the 61st captain of the All Blacks. After the match in a formal presentation involving both teams he gave a "particularly long speech" which was all done in Spanish. Many Argentine players praised him afterwards for his remarkable ability with the local language, considering it was his first time......

Bucket incident

On July 8, 2006, in a Tri Nations Test against Australia, Collins was seen on bent-knee discreetly urinating into a bucket at Jade Stadium in Christchurch, minutes before kick-off. The controversial incident was shown on live television. [1]

External links

• Jerry Collins at AllBlacks.com

• Jerry Collins at The Official Hurricanes Website
• Gray, Wynne. "Rugby: Exodus? I'm not going anywhere", nzherald.co.nz, 2007-06-08. Retrieved on 2007-06-08.