John Kirwan Bio

John Kirwan is a former player and coach who enjoyed a highly distinguished career in both codes of the game. John Kirwan was inducted into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame in 2021.

Born 16 December 1964, John Kirwan made 142 appearances for Auckland between 1983 and 1994. During the same period, he also represented Marist (1983-94), Treviso (1985-89) and Thiene (1989-90). Following this, he finished his domestic career with the NEC Green Rockets in Japan (1997-99).

In addition to this, as well as being a highly distinguished rugby union player, John Kirwan also spent a period of his career playing rugby league. Between 1995 and 1996, he made 35 appearances for the Auckland Warriors and was the side’s top try scorer in 1996.

However, John Kirwan undoubtedly experienced his greatest successes playing rugby union. Due to this, during his rugby union career, he was capped 63 times by the All Blacks. During this period, he was a member of the All Blacks side that went 23 games unbeaten between 1987 and 1990. As part of this stretch, he won the Rugby World Cup.