TJ Perenara

His father Thomas (whose father hails from Matatā) played for the Junior Kiwis in 1987 and in the New Zealand Softball Team (Black Sox) from 1987 to 1996.

His mother Fiona (Farrow) played softball for New Zealand as did his grandmother Patricia Farrow and his uncle Jason Farrow.

Perenara's paternal grandmother was born in Broken Hill, Australia.

Two of his cousins, Henry and Marcus, played in the National Rugby League competition.

He is also distantly related to All Black teammate, Sonny Bill Williams, as well as Samoan international rugby player, Tim Nanai-Williams.

He is of Te Arawa and Ngāti Rangitihi descent.

Thomas Tekanapu Rawakata Perenara (born 23 January 1992), commonly known as TJ Perenara, is a New Zealand rugby union player who currently plays Halfback or First Five-Eighth for the Wellington Lions in the Mitre 10 Cup, the Hurricanes in Super Rugby and New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks.

He was part of the New Zealand under-20 rugby team that won the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship in Italy.

Perenara is currently Captain of the Hurricanes, alongside Dane Coles and is the most-capped Hurricane of all time.

Perenara scored a hat-trick of tries on his Super Rugby debut in a 46–19 victory against the Western Force in Perth on 10 March 2012.

Perenara quickly became a regular starter for the team.

He was selected for the All Blacks squad for the 2013 Rugby Championship but was not capped that year.

Perenara made his international debut for New Zealand in 2014 and has since played 80 tests for his country, having attended both the 2015 Rugby World Cup and 2019 Rugby World Cup during his international career.

Perenara was born in Porirua, New Zealand and grew up in the suburb of Titahi Bay.

After finishing the 2014 Super Rugby season with five tries, he made his All Blacks debut in the first test against England in 2014, along with centre Malakai Fekitoa.

Perenara scored his first test try for the All Blacks in a 34-13 win against Argentina that year after replacing Aaron Smith off the bench.

Perenara then went on to start for the first time in his international career against the United States, only being replaced with nine minutes to go.

Perenara played in all three remaining tests on the end-of-year tour, including a start against Scotland.

Perenara scored the second-to-most tries of any player in the 2015 Super Rugby season behind Highlanders winger Waisake Naholo, scoring eleven tries for the Hurricanes that season.

Following the end of the Super Rugby season, Perenara started against Argentina for the All Blacks.

He was named in New Zealand's ultimately victorious 2015 Rugby World Cup squad, playing in two matches, including a start against Namibia.

Perenara was named vice-captain of the Hurricanes following Conrad Smith's departure to Pau.

Perenara captained the Hurricanes multiple times in 2016 due to injuries to regular captain Dane Coles, including the semi-final against the Chiefs.

Perenara was also named man of the match against the Sharks in the quarter-final, where he scored a try in the 41-0 victory, the first time in Super Rugby history that a losing team did not score any points in a knockout round.

Perenara was initially left out of New Zealand's All Blacks squad in 2016, but was called up as injury cover for Tawera Kerr-Barlow.

Perenara and Kerr-Barlow were both kept in the squad for the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks deciding to have three halfbacks in the squad.

During the competition, Aaron Smith began to decrease in form quality after having multiple off-field incidents.

Perenara earned a start against Argentina in the championship, keeping the starting spot over Kerr-Barlow for the rest of the competition.

He scored 4 tries during the competition, including two tries against South Africa and what was later nominated for Try of The Year against Argentina.

Perenara has been used as New Zealand's Haka leader since Smith's off-field incidents too.

Towards the end of 2016 Perenara was established as New Zealand's first-choice halfback, upon Aaron Smith's decline in performance after his return to the international field.

Perenara ended 2016 as one of the team's top try-scorers after scoring his fifth of the year in the historic 40-29 loss to Ireland in Chicago.

After captaining the Hurricanes to an 83-17 win over the Sunwolves to open their season, Perenara took over as captain of the team and led the team in every single match of the year except for four.

This happened after Dane Coles was badly concussed in round three against the Chiefs.

Coles did not return to action until the knockout rounds.

Coles relieved Perenara of captaincy in the semi-final.

Perenara scored the opening try of the semi-final in Johannesburg, but the Hurricanes suffered a 29-44 loss to the Lions in the match.

Perenara became the highest try-scorer of all halfbacks in Super Rugby history in 2017 where he scored his 44th try and seventh of the 2017 season in the semi-final loss to the Lions in Johannesburg.

Perenara scored his first try of the 2018 Super Rugby campaign against the Crusaders to score his 45th try.

Perenara has the second-to-most tries of 48 tries than any active Super Rugby player behind New South Wales Waratahs fullback Israel Folau.