 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Mils Muliaina" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Muliaina in 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth name | Junior Malili Muliaina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1980-07-31)31 July 1980 (age 44) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Salelesi,Samoa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 93 kg (14 st 9 lb; 205 lb)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Cargill High School Southland Boys' High School Kelston Boys' High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Junior Malili"Mils" Muliaina (born 31 July 1980) is a former professionalrugby union player who most recently played forSan Francisco Rush in the USPRO Rugby competition.[2] He played primarily as afullback, though he has also played as acentre and on thewing.
Born in Salelesi,Samoa, Muliaina moved with his family toInvercargill, New Zealand, at the age of three. At international level Muliaina played forNew Zealand from 2003 until his retirement after the2011 Rugby World Cup. Muliaina became only the second All Black to reach 100 caps during the World Cup quarter-final againstArgentina in 2011. He scored 33tries for New Zealand and remains among the top 40highest try scorers in rugby union.
He first attendedCargill High School thenSouthland Boys' High School, where he proved proficient enough at rugby to be offered a scholarship toKelston Boys' High School inAuckland, in 1998. Subsequently, Muliaina played for the NZ Secondary Schools XV, the team winning that year's world championship. He repeated this the following year with the Under 19 side, and in 2000 and 2001 was part of the world champion Under 21 (NZ Colt) teams of those years.[citation needed]
Muliaina joined theAuckland Blues in 2001 and was a part of theSuper 12 title-winning team for the Blues in 2003. Muliaina's test debut for theAll Blacks was against England on 14 June 2003 at theWestpac Stadium inWellington. He was subsequently part of the All Black squad at the2003 Rugby World Cup.[citation needed] In 2004, he was the only player to be selected for every test played by the All Blacks. Muliaina has also played in 11 tournaments for thesevens team, including winning aCommonwealth Games gold medal in 2002 inManchester. Though he has expressed a preference for playing as anoutside centre, Muliaina generally plays atfullback. In 2006 he joined theChiefs, with whom he brought up his 100thSuper Rugby cap in 2011.[citation needed]
On 9 October 2011 during the2011 Rugby World Cup, Muliaina played his 100th game for the All Blacks after starting atfullback against Argentina. During the game, Muliaina was forced from the field at half-time, having injured his shoulder. This was later revealed to have been fractured, meaning he was dropped from the New Zealand World Cup squad. Muliaina retired from the All Blacks squad the following day on 10 October 2011 after achieving his 100th Test cap and returned on 23 October 2011 to claim his gold medal after the All Blacks won the2011 Rugby World Cup final.[citation needed]
As of 4 May 2014, Mils had signed a one-year contract for Irish provincial regionConnacht in thePro12.[3] On 21 November 2014, Muliaina made his Connacht debut in a 43–3 win over Italian side Zebre at the Sportgrounds.
In July 2015, Muliaina was charged with sexual assault following an incident with a woman in a Cardiff night club.[4] The charge was dropped in October 2015 on evidential grounds.[5]
It was announced in March 2016 that Muliaina would play the upcoming season in the United States in the newly formedPRO Rugby competition. He joined theSan Francisco Rush midway through the inaugural 2016 season.[citation needed]
