Brent Pope (rugby analyst)
| Full name | Brent Pope |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 27 October 1962 |
| Place of birth | New Zealand |
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| Weight | 105 kg (17 st 2 lb, 240 lb) |
Brent Pope (born 27 October 1962) is a New Zealand rugby analyst on RTÉ television, rugby journalist, charity worker, children's book author, after dinner speaker, founder of Outside in Art Gallery in Dublin Ireland and owner of POPE shirts. He was born, raised and spent his rugby playing career in New Zealand, but has lived and worked in Ireland for most of his broadcasting career.
Brent Pope played for various provincial and New Zealand underage teams before representing Mid Canterbury and then Canterbury. Playing for Lincoln University Pope then moved to Otago University and for the next decade played for Otago at New Zealand first division level, helping Otago to its first ever first division national title in 1991. Pope played nearly 100 first class games for Otago in a career that spanned nearly 10 years with the Dunedin-based side, during that time he formed potent loose forward trios with the likes of All Blacks Paul Henderson, Mike Brewer, Taine Randell, Josh Kronfeld, Arran Pene and Jamie Joseph.
Pope was selected in the original 1987 New Zealand Rugby World Cup training squad, but had to withdraw a week before the tournament began due to a serious elbow injury in the final series of All Black trials, he was then replaced by a young and relatively unknown Auckland No 8 by the name of Zinzan Brooke. Pope came back after injury to be nominated as one of New Zealand's outstanding domestic players of that year, Pope was named Otago player of the year in 1987/8 and was again shortlisted for the All Blacks tour to Japan at the end of that year only to miss out again when the tour party was trimmed to just 24 players. Pope played in a number of final All Black trials from 1987-1992, represented the South Island, New Zealand Schools, Universities, Leinster, Barbarians, A New Zealand selection XV, International XV and was a Captain of the Penguins. Pope also played county provincial representative rugby in England and United States (OMBAC) He came to Ireland in 1991 where he played and later coached St Marys, Clontarf RFC and Leinster A.
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