Matthew Ridge
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Personal information
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| Full name | Matthew John Ridge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
27 August 1968 Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand |
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Playing information
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| Height | 181 cm (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 92 kg (14 st 7 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rugby union
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| Position | Fullback | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rugby league
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| Position | Fullback | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: yesterdayshero.com.au, nrlstats.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Matthew John Ridge (born 27 August 1968) is a New Zealand television presenter as well as a former All Black, and international rugby league captain. He moved from rugby union to the professional New South Wales Rugby League in 1990 with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (with whom he won the 1996 ARL Premiership), and later captained the New Zealand Warriors. He is now best known for his mischievous antics alongside his partner Marc Ellis in various TV shows like Game of Two Halves and Marc & Matthew's Rocky Road to....
Despite never having played a game of rugby league in his life, Ridge was signed by the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and their Kiwi coach Graham Lowe to play in the New South Wales Rugby League's Winfield Cup competition from 1990. Ridge made his debut at fullback for the Sea Eagles in their Round 10 clash with Cronulla at Manly's home ground, Brookvale Oval. He became the team's first choice goal kicker ahead of dual rugby international and Sea Eagles captain Michael O'Connor and part-time kicker Mal Cochrane when he kicked 6/7 in his first game helping 10th placed Manly to a 28–8 win over the 3rd placed Sharks. Ridge ended the 1990 season as Manly's leading point scorer with 94 points (2 tries, 43/57 goals) in 11 games.
Just six games into his Manly career, Ridge played his first rugby league test for New Zealand against the touring Great Britain Lions. In his first league international on 8 July 1990 at the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland, Ridge kicked 5 goals as the Kiwis went down 16–14 in front of 7,843 fans. He backed this up a week later with another 6 goal performance in helping New Zealand to a 21–18 win over the Lions in Christchurch.
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Wikipedia