This is the player profile of All Blacks and Blues team’s professional rugby player Jerome Kaino. Get all the important personal and professional details about him in this article.
Table of Contents
Jerome Kaino Information
Basic Details
Full Name: Jerome Kaino
Date of Birth: 6th April 1983
Place of Birth: Faga’alu, Tutuila, American Samoa
Height: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight: 113 Kgs
Professional Details
Position: Flanker
Jersey No: 8
All Blacks Player No: 1050
Club Career:
- Auckland University (As Amateur)
- Blues (2004-2018) For Super Rugby
- Toyota Verblitz (2012-2014)
- Auckland (2004-2017)
- Toulouse (2018-Present)
National Team: New Zealand All Blacks
Jerome Kaino Personal Life
Jerome Kaino is an American Samoan born rugby player who plays for the All Blacks rugby team of New Zealand. In the Super Rugby Jerome Kaino is part of the Blues team which represents the Auckland area of New Zealand. Since 2004 he has been part of the professional rugby in New Zealand. He was also named as the IRB International U21 Rugby Player for the year 2004. Till 2011 Jerome Kaino was part of every single IRB Rugby World Cup match which the All Blacks have played since the team has won the 1997 Rugby World Cup. After Frank Solomon who first played Rugby for All Blacks in 1931. He is only the second American Samoan to play rugby for All Blacks.
He was just 4 when his family moved to Auckland, New Zealand from a small village of Leone in American Samoa. After settling down in Auckland, Jerome Kaino started playing rugby and played his junior rugby for the Papakura Sea Eagles, and later he was switched to the Saint Kentigern College where he was offered to have a rugby scholarship. If the Kaino family moved to the USA and not New Zealand Jerome would have tried and found a place in the US Army it is believed.
Jerome Kaino played his first unofficial international game against the Barbarians at the Twickenham and was awarded man of the match. His first two official international games were against Ireland. He was instrumental in the All Blacks winning of 2011 IRB Rugby World Cup and was part of every starting XV in each game. Except for few seconds in the Semifinal game against Australia in that world cup, He played every minute of the 2011 IRB Rugby World Cup.
Post winning the world cup in his motherland, he moved on to playing for the Japanese Top League in March 2012. He also signed a two-year deal with Toyota Verblitz.
In 2013, Kaino returned to New Zealand and resigned with the New Zealand Rugby Union, North Harbour and Auckland Blues on a two-year contract.
After that, he pulled up his socks and came back like a true sportsman with his superlative performances. He was part of all the seven World Cup matches held in 2015 and also acted as one of the key players of the All Blacks who went back to back at the global tournament.
Out of 81 test appearances, he played in a total of 68 matches. It is considered to be the second-highest by any of the All Blacks flankers after Richie McCaw. He played both his first and last games against the Barbarians.
In 2017, Kaino was on the Lions Tour and started all 3 of the All Blacks tests against the British and Irish Lions. With this, his test tally totaled to 81 and 12 tries.
He played on 127 instances for the blues before the 2018 Super Rugby scoring 14 tries. Post that, in February, he left playing that year in New Zealand, announcing that he is leaving at the end of the 2018 Super Rugby season to play club rugby in France for Toulouse.
This time, he finished with the blues and has made a total of 139 Super Rugby appearances scoring 14 tries. Last but not least, In 2019, kaino extended his contract at Toulouse by one more year.
