Tom Franklin

Tom Franklin (born 11 August 1990) is a New Zealand rugby union player who currently plays as a lock for in New Zealand's domestic National Provincial Championship competition and the in Super Rugby.

Senior career

Franklin first played provincial rugby with in 2011, debuting in a 30–14 win over , one of two appearances he made during the year. He was far more of a regular in 2012, playing 8 times and scoring his first provincial try for the Razorbacks as they came second in the ITM Cup Championship standings and reached the promotion playoff final before being thrashed 41–16 by Counties Manukau. He played 10 times in both the 2013 and 2014 seasons as Otago finished in 2nd and 6th place on the log respectively, still unable to gain promotion to the Premiership.

After a poor year in 2014, the Razorbacks started to turn the corner in 2015, winning 6 of their 10 regular season matches they finished 3rd on the Championship log behind and before being defeated 34–14 by the Lions in the semi-finals. Franklin scored 1 try in 8 matches during the season and the following year added 3 more 5 pointers in 9 games as the men from Dunedin topped the Championship log and went on to reach the playoff final where they were surprisingly bettered by , going down 17–14 at home, a defeat which consigned them to yet another season of Championship rugby in 2017.

Super Rugby

Several seasons of solid performances at domestic level with Otago brought him to the attention of Dunedin-based Super Rugby franchise, the , who named him in their squad for the 2014 Super Rugby season. He came back for one more season with the Highlanders in 2019 and played a total of 85 games for the franchise.

International career

Franklin was a member of the New Zealand Under-20 side which won the 2010 Junior World Championship in Argentina, playing 5 times.

He has also represented the Māori All Blacks, receiving his first call up to their squad ahead of the 2014 end-of-year rugby union internationals. He started both matches on their tour, victories over in Kobe and Tokyo, playing the full 80 minutes in a 61–21 win in the first test, before being yellow carded and then substituted by Hayden Triggs in a narrow 20-18 success in the second test.

After a gap of 2 years, he was once again in a Māori shirt for the 2016 end-of-year rugby union internationals and played in the victories over the and Harlequins.

Franklin was named as injury cover for Sam Whitelock in the All Blacks squad ahead of the 2016 mid-year rugby union internationals series against . Whitelock missed the first test but recovered enough to play in the remaining two matches so Franklin was withdrawn from the squad and is still awaiting his senior test debut. He was also part of the All Blacks squad named to train for the 2017 Rugby Championship.

Honours

New Zealand Under-20

IRB Junior World Championship – 2010

Highlanders

Super Rugby – 2015

Taranaki

National Provincial Championship – 2023

Super Rugby statistics

Season Team Games Starts Sub Mins Tries Cons Pens Drops Points Yel Red 2014 8 3 5 426 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2015 15 11 4 794 1 0 0 0 5 0 0 2016 15 13 2 879 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Total 38 27 11 2099 1 0 0 0 5 0 0