New Orleans Gold & Kane Thompson
New Orleans Gold Rugby Club signed Samoa lock Kane Thompson for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. Thompson is 36 years old, 6’7″ tall, and weighs 249 pounds.
Thompson, who is from Wellington, New Zealand, will fulfill an important team needs at lock. Last season. John Sullivan played most of the season at lock instead of his natural back row position.
Thompson is a season veteran rugby player. He played for Wellington College from 2002-2005 for the Wellington Lions in the National Provincial Championship. He then played in the Mitre 10 Cup for Southland from 2005-07 and for the Highlanders from 2006-2007.
Thompson then left New Zealand and played for Dax in the French Rugby ProD2 League from 2007-2010. Then it was back to Southland in 2010, Hawke’s Bay in 2011, before playing Super Rugby with the Chiefs in 2012. For the remainder of 2012, he played in the Japan Top League for the Canon Eagles.
In 2014 Thompson returned to the Chiefs, making six appearances before signing with the English Premiership Newcastle Falcons from 2014-2016.
In 2016 he returned to New Zealand to play with the Manawatu Turbos and in 2017 with the Taranaki Bulls. In 2017 he also attended Massey University.
National Team Rugby
Thompson began representative rugby, playing for the New Zealand Under-21s, making eight appearances from 2002-2003.
He played Senior International rugby for Samoa, his grandmother’s home nation, from 2007-2015. The first of his 33 caps came when he debuted against Fiji at Apia on May 19, 2007. His last test was against Scotland at Newcastle on October 10, 2015. During his 33 appearances, he started 29 times.
Thompson also played in three Rugby World Cups in 2007, 2011, and in 2015. He started all ten of his appearances.
New Orleans Gold Rugby Club
Kane Thompson strength is in the set pieces. That makes him a valuable addition to Nola Gold Rugby Club. With the recent additions of Tristan Blewett and Scott Gale, along with the core of the team from last year, New Orleans Gold will be looking to assert themselves in 2019, the second Major League Rugby season.
