Dane Coles

Dane Stuart Coles (born 10 December 1986) is a former New Zealand rugby union player.

Coles was a key member of the 2015 Rugby World Cup winning team. He also captained the Hurricanes to their maiden Super Rugby title in 2016. He was widely regarded as one of the best hookers in the world at the height of his career and was a nominee for World Rugby Player of the Year in 2016.

Early life
Coles attended Paraparaumu Beach School. He later attended Paraparaumu College and Wellington College.

Rugby career
In 2012, Coles made his All Blacks debut against Scotland. He came on in the 62nd minute: New Zealand 51, Scotland 22. Coles made three more appearances off the bench in 2012, earning his first start for New Zealand in 2013 against France.

Coles scored his first try against South Africa in 2014 in a 25–27 loss and had also become a regular starter for New Zealand by 2014, supplanting long-serving All Black great Keven Mealamu from the starting XV.

Coles started in the knockout rounds of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, including the final against Australia, where the 34–17 victory saw New Zealand become the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles.

Of Ngāti Porou descent, Coles was awarded the Tom French Memorial Cup in 2016 as the Māori rugby player of the year. After scoring four tries that year, which made him the highest-scoring forward in the squad for 2016, Coles was also nominated for New Zealand Rugby Player of the Year and World Rugby Player of the Year earlier in 2016, losing both awards to Hurricanes teammate Beauden Barrett.

Following the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Hurricanes midfielder and Captain Conrad Smith announced that he would leave New Zealand for Pau in France. Smith's departure saw Coles named as the captain of the Hurricanes for 2016.

Coles played in the first three games of the 2017 Super Rugby season for the Hurricanes but after a concussion on 18 March missed an extended period of time, including the drawn British and Irish Lions test series. Coles lost the Hurricanes captaincy to halfback TJ Perenara but returned to play in the Super Rugby quarter final on 21 July against the Brumbies in Canberra, coming off the bench for Ricky Riccitelli in the Hurricanes dominant 35–16 victory. He started the following week's semi-final against the Lions at Ellis Park Stadium, which the Hurricanes lost. Due to concussion he missed the first Bledisloe Cup test of 2017 but earned his 50th test in a 35–29 win against Australia in the second Bledisloe Cup test on August 26. Coles was retained as a starting player for the rest of the 2017 Rugby Championship despite the form of Codie Taylor who had started against the Lions in his absence. Coles scored a try in the 38–18 win against France but was subbed off after 20 minutes, due to tearing his ACL, in what was only his 11th professional rugby game of 2017.

Coles missed all of the 2018 Super Rugby season due to his ACL injury. Coles was expected to be back in time for the playoffs but was physically unable to run until June. England international, Brad Shields, captained the Hurricanes in 2018 in Coles' absence. After finally recovering from injury at the back-end of the 2018 Mitre 10 Cup, Coles, as well as his teammate Nepo Laulala were both recalled for New Zealand after a long injury-enforced absence. Coles played four tests for New Zealand during the 2018 end-of-year rugby union internationals, but was on the bench for the All Blacks against England and Ireland, having been surpassed as the first-choice hooker by Codie Taylor.

In 2021 Coles led the haka for the All Blacks side a total four times. For all four the Ka Mate version was performed. On 10 July 2021 versus Fiji Coles scored four tries which is a record for an All Blacks forward in one match.

After the 2023 Rugby World Cup Coles signed with Japanese club Kubota Spears.

Style of play
Coles is a modern-game hooker who, without sacrificing mass or power for breakdown phases, is also extremely mobile across the field and capable of producing high-quality passing. Such set of skills, traditionally unusual in a front-rower, allow him to join setplays as an extra centre and even to deliver impressively fast runs on the wing. His effectiveness has been praised after his international debut, "with many experts describing Coles as having 'revolutionised' the role of the modern hooker".

Honours
New Zealand
 * Rugby World Cup / Webb Ellis Cup


 * Winner: 2015


 * Third-place: 2019
 * Second-place: 2023

Hurricanes
 * Winner Super Rugby - 2016

Individual
IRB player of the year nominee - 2016