Leon MacDonald

Leon MacDonald

Player information
Full name	Leon Raymond MacDonald
birthday	December 21, 1977
place of birth	Blenheim , New Zealand
society
society	Canterbury
position	Goalkeeper , connection half inner three quarters and outer three quarters
Clubs as active
Years	society	Games (points)
2004	Marlborough
	Canterbury
	Yamaha Jubilo
	Chiefs (Super 12)
	Crusaders
National team
Years	National team	Games (points)
2000–	New Zealand	54 (141)
2005	New Zealand Māori	3 (10)
Status: June 30, 2007 National team: June 21, 2008

Leon Raymond MacDonald (born December 21, 1977 in Blenheim ) is a New Zealand rugby union player. He plays as a goalkeeper , liaison half and sometimes as an outside three quarters .

He made his debut in New Zealand provincial rugby in 1994 for Marlborough against Buller. He currently plays for the Crusaders in the Super 14 and for Canterbury in the Air New Zealand Cup . He has also played for Yamaha Jubilo in Japan.

Career

MacDonald went to Marlborough Boys' College. He played for Burnside in the Christchurch Premier Competition and made his debut with the All Blacks in 2000 at the age of 22 in a game against Scotland . To date he has scored 131 points (12 attempts , 25 raises, 7 penalties) in 43 international matches. He has also played in three games for the New Zealand Māori , in which he scored 10 points. He scored the attempt for the New Zealand Māori, which brought victory over the British and Irish Lions in Hamilton in 2005 .

Lineup Controversies

At the 2003 World Cup , MacDonald was suggested by the then assistant coach of the All Blacks back line, Robbie Deans, instead of being the goalkeeper as the inner three-quarters. This experiment failed, however, and it was the last time he played as the inner three-quarters. In 2005, he was suggested as a liaison half against the Lions by the All Blacks backcourt assistant coach Wayne Smith. This failed again and he no longer played in this position.

Web links

• Profile on allblacks.com