Kianu Kereru-Symes

Club

Shining Arcs Tokyo-Bay Urayasu

Position

Hooker

Nationality

New Zealand

Date of birth

1999-02-28

Birthplace

Māhia, New Zealand

Height

180 cm

Weight

106 kg

Kianu Kereru-Symes (born 28 February 1999) is a New Zealand rugby union player, who currently plays as a hooker or Prop for Hawke's Bay in New Zealand's domestic National Provincial Championship competition and the New England Free Jacks in Major League Rugby (MLR) in the United States. He has previously played for the Hurricanes in Super Rugby.

Kereru-Symes hails from Māhia, in the Hawke's Bay region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. His half-brother, Tom Symes, played 43 games at prop for Hawke's Bay from 2002 to 2007. His cousin Paul Symes also played 2 games for the Magpies in 1998–1999, represented East Coast and played for the Central Vikings.

Kereru-Symes attended Hastings Boys' High School, where he captained and played for the school's First XV rugby team, alongside future Hawke's Bay teammates Folau Fakatava, Devan Flanders, Lincoln McClutchie and Danny Toala. He started at loosehead prop for Hastings Boys' in their first National Top 4 final against Mount Albert Grammar School in 2016, but had to leave the field with a suspected concussion after 15 minutes. Hastings Boys' narrowly lost that final 13–14. In 2017, he captained the team to a National Top 4 victory, beating Hamilton Boys' High School 25 to 17 in the final after an undefeated season.

He played representative rugby for several Hawke's Bay age grade teams, including at U13, U14, U16 and U19 level.

Both in 2016 and 2017, Kereru-Symes was named in the Hurricanes U18 team to play the Crusaders U18 team in their annual game.

While he played at prop during his First XV days, Kereru-Symes switched to hooker after he left school.

Kereru-Symes was, for the first time, named in the Hawke's Bay squad for the 2018 Mitre 10 Cup season. He made his debut for the province – via the bench – on 8 September 2018 against Bay of Plenty and earned his first start five days later against Waikato. He scored his first try for the Magpies on 22 September 2018 against North Harbour. At the end of his first season, on 23 October 2018, he won the Magpies Players Player of the Year award and Rookie of the Year award at the team's end-of-season awards function.

From his first season, Kereru-Symes established himself as a reliable back-up for regular starting Magpies hooker Ash Dixon. His excellent performance for Hawke's Bay in 2018 lead to him being named in the Hurricanes U20 team in 2019. He also played for the Hurricanes Development team.

The following year, he was part o