Nehe Milner-Skudder

Nehe Rihara Milner-Skudder (born 15 December 1990) is a New Zealand rugby union player who currently plays for the Rugby New York.

He was selected for the All Blacks in 2015, and was a key member of 2015 Rugby World Cup winning team. He scored New Zealand's first try in the 2015 RWC final, going over in the far right corner just before half time, and was awarded the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2015.

Milner-Skudder was born 15 December 1990 in Taihape, New Zealand. On the Maori side he is of the Ngati Porou and Tapuika tribes.

Heneriata Milner is a cousin of the late All Black centre Henare 'Buff' Milner, an All Black in 1968–1970. Milner-Skudder's father Richard is a younger brother of George Skudder (George represented the All Blacks, also as a winger in 1969 and 1972).

Another All Black Tanerau Latimer (five tests; six games 2009) is Nehe's first cousin. Ben Atiga was another All Black (1 test 2003) from the same wider family. Their forefathers were born and raised in Lapaha, Tongatapu in Tonga, before they left to New Zealand. Two members of the earlier generations of the Skudder family were part of 94 a group of Tongans who volunteered to join the Pioneer Maori Battalion and Niue Battalion during WWI.

Milner-Skudder began his professional career by switching to rugby league and was a member of the Sydney-based, Canterbury Bulldogs Under-20s Holden Cup team in 2009 and 2010. He moved back to New Zealand for 2011 and linked up with the Massey University rugby union team, before being selected by his local ITM Cup side, Manawatu, debuting during the 2011 season. He quickly established himself as a regular in the Manawatu starting line-ups and although injury limited him to just five appearances in 2013 he was named as a member of the Hurricanes wider training group for the 2014 Super Rugby season. A very impressive ITM Cup campaign in 2014 in which Manawatu topped the Championship division saw him upgraded to the Hurricanes official squad for 2015.

Milner-Skudder sustained a serious shoulder injury against the Blues in March 2016, requiring surgery to be performed. This meant he missed out on the rest of the Hurricanes' successful Super Rugby campaign that year- which saw the Hurricanes win the title after beating the Lions of South Africa in the 2016 Super Rugby final. Milner-Skudder's injury, along with Julian Savea's poor form saw the Hurricanes back-line change extensively throughout the campaign, before settling for Jason Woodward and former All Black Cory Jane on the wings, while James Marshall was shifted to fullback.

Milner-Skudder began training with Manawatu for the 2016 ITM Cup, but did not play as he had not recovered properly. However, in 2017, Milner-Skudder was released from the All Blacks, thus being able to play a game for Manawatu.