Caleb Ralph

Caleb Ralph
Birth name	Caleb Stan Ralph
Date of birth	10 September 1977 (age 47)
Place of birth	Rotorua, New Zealand
Height	187 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	93 kg (14 st 9 lb; 205 lb)
School	Western Heights High School
Occupation(s)	Professional rugby union footballer
Rugby union career
Position(s)
Position(s)	Centre, wing
Provincial / State sides
Years	Team
1996–97	Bay of Plenty
1998–99	Auckland
2000–06	Canterbury
2007	Tasman
Super Rugby
Years	Team
1997	Chiefs
1998–99	Blues
2000–09	Crusaders
2011	Reds
International career
Years	Team
1998–2003	New Zealand
–	New Zealand Māori
National sevens team
Years	Team
1996–2000	New Zealand 7s
Men's rugby sevens
Representing New Zealand
Commonwealth Games

Caleb Stan Ralph (born 10 September 1977 in Rotorua) is a New Zealand rugby union footballer. Ralph began his first-class career with Bay of Plenty, then moved to Auckland before heading to Canterbury. He started his Super Rugby career with the Chiefs in 1997, Blues (1998–1999), Crusaders (2000–2008) and a cameo role with the Queensland Reds (2011). He made his All Black debut while playing for Auckland in 1998.

After an absence from the national team of three years he was recalled in 2001, and was a regular member of the All Blacks throughout the 2002 and 2003 seasons, playing a total of 13 tests and scoring eight tries, including a hat-trick against Italy in 2002, and was a member of the New Zealand team during the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In 2006 he gained his 100th consecutive super rugby cap.

He made the New Zealand sevens side while still at Western Heights High School, Rotorua. He has since regularly represented New Zealand in Rugby sevens between 1996 and 2000 playing with Eric Rush and was a member of the gold medal-winning New Zealand team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

Ralph is fifth on the all-time list of Super Rugby try scorers, five tries behind TJ Perenara, and he still holds the record for consecutive Super Rugby appearances with 104. Ralph won the Canterbury Maori Trophy on 10 December 2005. In 2008 he signed up to play with Japanese club Fukuoka Sanix Blues.^[1] In 2010 he signed with the Australian club Sunshine Coast Stingrays. The following year in the final round of the regular 2011 Super Rugby season, Queensland Reds coach Ewen McKenzie recruited Ralph on a short term contract to combat the side's injury crisis in the outside backs. In Round 18 he took the field in the 65th minute as a substitute and equalled George Gregan's then-record of 136 Super Rugby games.^[2]

References

^ "Ex-All Black joins Japan's Sanix". Daily Yomuiri Online. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2008. ^{[dead link‍]}
^ "Chiefs vs. Reds, Round 18, 2011 Match Report". New Zealand Herald – nzherald.co.nz. 18 June 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2015.