Jerome Kaino

The incredible sportsman Jerome Kaino is a rugby league coach and a former professional rugby league player, who most famously turned out for the Blues, and Auckland in New Zealand, and for Toulouse in France, where he is now the skills and U-21 coach. He is also the second US national of Samoan descent to play for the All Blacks, and was a member of their 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup winning teams.

Born in American Samoa and raised in New Zealand from the age of four, Kaino started playing junior rugby league at a young age before switching to rugby union at school where he was eventually offered a rugby scholarship. He played amateur rugby at Auckland University, and started his club career in 2004 when he made his debut for Auckland in provincial rugby union and the Blues in Super Rugby. In 2012 he relocated to Japan to play for the Toyota Verblitz, and then in 2018 he went to France to play for Toulouse, where he helped the side win the Top 14 in 2019 and 2021, as well as the European Rugby Champions Cup in 2021. He retired from the game in 2021 and remained with Toulouse as their skills and U-21 coach.

Kaino made his international debut after he was called up to the All Blacks squad in December 2004. He missed the 2007 Rugby World Cup due to injury, but returned to the fold in 2008 and went on to help New Zealand win two Rugby World Cups (2011, and 2015), as well as five Tri Nations/The Rugby Championships (2008, 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2017).

Kaino regularly connects with his hundreds of thousands of followers and fans through Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, posting pictures and comments about his sporting life.