Tawera Kerr-Barlow

Tawera Kerr-Barlow came off the bench in the 2015 World Cup quarter-final against France and scored twice in a 62-13 win. Those were the only two tries he scored for New Zealand, in a career of caps that began in 2012 and ended five years later.

Scrum-half at Stade Français, 1.87m and 91kg, and 36 years old.

Born in Australia and raised a New Zealander, he was in the Waikato side at eighteen in 2009 and the Chiefs by 2011, winning Super Rugby with them in 2012 and 2013.

The black jersey came on the 2012 end-of-year tour, replacing Piri Weepu in his sixty-ninth Test in a 51-22 win over Scotland. What followed was the life of a good understudy: eleven appearances off the bench for Aaron Smith in 2013 alone, a first start against Japan on that year’s tour, and injuries through 2014 and 2015 that let Andy Ellis and Brad Weber past him before the World Cup he then made his own for twenty minutes.

He played for the Māori All Blacks against the British and Irish Lions at Rotorua in June 2017 and was yellow-carded before the hour for a dangerous tackle. His last appearance in black came on that year’s tour, a start against a French XV, and he led the haka before it.

La Rochelle took him from the 2017-18 season and kept him eight years. Two Champions Cups came out of it, in 2022 and 2023, either side of a final lost in 2021, and two Top 14 finals lost as well. In August 2022 he said he would consider switching allegiance to Australia, the country of his birth, under World Rugby’s new eligibility rules.

Released by La Rochelle, he signed for Paris on 11 June 2025 for the following season. Four Rugby Championships, two Super Rugby titles, a World Cup and a junior world title sit behind him.