Brad Shields

Club

Wellington Hurricanes

Position

Flanker

Nationality

New Zealand

Date of birth

1991-04-02

Birthplace

Masterton, New Zealand

Height

1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)

Weight

111 kg (17 st 7 lb; 245 lb)

Bradley David Fenner Shields (born 2 April 1991) is a rugby union player who currently plays as a loose forward for Wasps in England's Premiership Rugby and played 8 times for the England national rugby union team in 2018 and 2019. He previously played for Wellington in New Zealand's domestic Mitre 10 Cup and was captain of the Hurricanes in the Super Rugby competition. In November 2017 he signed with Wasps.

Early career
Born in the town of Masterton, New Zealand, Shields attended Taita College in the suburb of Lower Hutt where he played first XV rugby and served as deputy head boy. After finishing high school, he began playing for Petone in Wellington's local club rugby competition while also captaining Wellington at under-20 level.

Senior career
Shields made his provincial debut aged just 19 in 2010. Taking advantage of injuries to established players Rodney So'oialo and Serge Lilo, he played in a 52–23 victory away to North Harbour. That was to be his only appearance during the season, however the following year, he became much more of a regular, featuring 10 times and scoring his first 2 provincial tries as the Lions finished a disappointing 6th on the Premiership log.

After missing the entire 2012 ITM Cup due to injury, he returned fully charged in 2013 and played 11 of Wellington's 12 games in a season which saw them finish top of the Premiership log before being defeated 29–13 at home by Canterbury in the playoff final. 2014 would be a year of turmoil for the Lions as they came 7th and last in the Premiership, recording just 1 win in 10 games. Shields captained the side and was named as Wellington's Player of the Year for his efforts.

The Lions failed to gain promotion to the Premiership at the first time of asking, finishing 2nd, behind Hawke's Bay on the Championship log before being defeated by the same opposition in the playoff final, narrowly going down 26–25. Injury restricted Shields to just 6 matches in 2015 where he scored a try and picked up a yellow card.

2016 saw Wellington once again come to close to earning promotion but yet again falling just short. After another 2nd place log finish, this time behind Otago, they were upset at home by North Harbour, 40–37 in the playoff semi-finals. Shield played 9 of 11 games during the campaign.

It was announced on 19 November 2017 that he would join Wasps in 2018.

Super Rugby
With just a little over a season's experience of provincial rugby under his belt, Shields was signed