Codie Taylor

Taylor exploited the slow speed of Frans Malherbe and his opposite, Malcolm Marx, to set up Aaron Smith's try and also scored one for himself in the 60th minute.

Taylor's performance was not enough to spark a late comeback however, with Beauden Barrett performing poorly in goal-kicking, as opposed to Man-of-the-Match Handre Pollard.

Although visibly fatigued from a huge workload, Taylor was retained in the starting lineup for the second test against South Africa, which was a late 32–30 win thanks to an Ardie Savea try.

Taylor's great performance saw the All Blacks win the Rugby Championship once again.

Taylor also earned another start for the All Blacks later that year in the 68–10 victory over Italy, making his way for debutant Liam Coltman in the 66th minute.

He scored a try on debut, in the 71st minute, after the All Blacks won a scrum close to the Argentine line.

Taylor lasted the whole 80 minutes against Namibia and was not replaced by Mealamu, ending the test by scoring a try in the 79th minute.

First-five Beauden Barrett converted Taylor's try to make the final score 58–14.

Codie Joshua Dane Taylor (born 31 March 1991) is a New Zealand professional rugby union player, who currently plays as a hooker for the Crusaders in Super Rugby and is contracted to for New Zealand's domestic National Provincial Championship competition.

He represents New Zealand internationally.

Taylor was part of the Junior All Blacks team which won the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship.

The Crusaders' fixture against the Lions was a low-scoring 12–3 loss for the Crusaders, with Taylor being subbed off in the 50th minute.

Taylor's incredible performances throughout the Super Rugby season saw him start in all three of the knockout rounds of the competition, where he made a big impact.

Taylor scored one of only two tries in the quarter-final, as the Crusaders beat The Highlanders 17–0 at home in Christchurch.

Of Ngāti Raukawa and Muaūpoko descent, Taylor played for the Māori All Blacks in 2014.

Taylor was selected for the All Blacks 2015 Squad, having surpassed Ben Funnell as the Crusaders' first-choice hooker during the 2015 Super Rugby season.

His first game for the All Blacks was the opening match of the 2015 Rugby Championship against Argentina, when he came off the bench in the 59th minute to replace the now-retired veteran Keven Mealamu.

Taylor was named in the All Blacks 31-man squad to go to the Rugby World Cup 2015 in England.

Taylor only made one appearance in the competition during the pool stages, which was New Zealand and Namibia's first international fixture.

Taylor surpassed the injury-plagued Nathan Harris as regular back-up to the All Blacks' starting hooker Dane Coles off the bench in 2016, following Keven Mealamu's retirement after the 2015 Rugby World Cup's conclusion.

Taylor also notably earned a start against Australia in the first match of the 2016 Rugby Championship, but was unfortunately subbed off after three minutes of play for a head injury assessment and was replaced by Coles.

Taylor did not return to the field that match and James Parsons was temporarily re-called to the All Blacks during Taylor's recovery from injury.

Taylor had notable involvement in the 57–15 win against South Africa in Durban on 6 October 2016, scoring a try off a driving maul and also receiving a yellow card long after the full-time had passed, following a head-high tackle on Springboks fullback Patrick Lambie.

Taylor played his 50th game for the Crusaders during the 2017 Super Rugby season and earned a start against the touring British & Irish Lions on 10 June 2017.

Taylor performed well in the 2017 Super Rugby Final, on 5 August 2017, with the Crusaders beating the Johannesburg-based Lions 25–17 to claim their eighth Super Rugby title.

In 2017, also had a huge workload for the All Blacks.

Taylor stepped up to the role of being a regular starter for the All Blacks following Dane Coles' 5 months out with a concussion.

This saw Taylor starting in all three historic tests against the British & Irish Lions, where Taylor scored the first try of the series after being set up to score, by Crusaders team-mate, winger Israel Dagg, with Taylor's try enabling the All Blacks to win the first test 30–15.

The All Blacks unfortunately failed to win against the Lions, in the next two tests in the series, with the two teams drawing the series.

Taylor kept the starting role at Hooker until Coles returned to international rugby on 26 August 2017, which was a 35–29 win, against Australia, that Taylor took part in off the bench.

After Coles was injured again, against France on the end-of-year tour, Taylor started twice more in 2017, starting in wins against Scotland and Wales.

Taylor ended the 2017 season as New Zealand's clear first-choice hooker and was the only player in the All Blacks squad that played in every single test of 2017, seven as a starter and seven as a substitute for Coles off the bench.

Taylor's opening try against Scotland on 18 November 2017, a 22–17 win over Scotland, also saw him finish the year as the All Blacks' highest try scorer of the forward pack, with four tries in the 2017 season.

Taylor earned the award for Man of the Match against France on 9 June 2018, after what was arguably the best individual performance in Taylor's whole career saw him score a try in the 52nd minute and also set up outside backs Rieko Ioane, Damian McKenzie and Ben Smith for tries, with the latter of them scoring his 30th test try off Taylor's pass.

Taylor's outstanding 63-minute performance saw him earn mass acclaim from media and saw the All Blacks beat France 52–11 to open their 2018 season.

Taylor backed up his performance in the first test against France by starting in the next two tests against France as well, with the All Blacks winning the series 3–0.

Taylor went into the 2018 Rugby Championship in excellent form, having won another Super Rugby title with the Crusaders prior to the competition.

Although the Crusaders managed to beat South Africa's Lions for the second year in a row in the Super Rugby Final, such an effort was not replicated internationally.

Taylor was one of the few All Blacks to shine in round four of the Rugby Championship, with the All Blacks suffering a shock 34–36 loss to South Africa.

With New Zealand's ranking as the best rugby team in the world on the line during the 2018 end-of-year tour, Head Coach, Steve Hansen, opted to keep Taylor as the first-choice hooker, despite the ageing Dane Coles coming back from a long injury-enforced break.