{"id":379754,"date":"2026-04-14T23:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/379754\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T23:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:46:13","slug":"former-all-blacks-captain-taine-randell-standing-as-new-zealand-first-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/379754\/","title":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks captain Taine Randell standing as New Zealand First candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former All Blacks captain Taine Randell will stand as a New Zealand First candidate at this year’s election.<\/p>\n

\"AUCKLAND,<\/p>\n

\nTaine Randell
\nPhoto: Getty Images \/ Sandra Mu\n<\/p>\n

Randell played 51 tests for the All Blacks between 1997 and 2002, captaining the side 22 times.<\/p>\n

He also had a lengthy career with Otago and the Highlanders<\/a>, as well a stint with London side Saracens.<\/p>\n

Randell is reportedly set to contest the Tukituki seat, currently held by National’s Catherine Wedd.<\/p>\n

According to Stuff<\/a>, Randell’s candidacy was set to be announced last Sunday at a New Zealand First public meeting in Hastings, which was postponed due to Cyclone Vaianu.<\/p>\n

The Tukituki seat takes in the Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay areas.<\/p>\n

Despite his Otago connections, Randell was born in Hastings and attended Lindisfarne College.<\/p>\n

\"Taine<\/p>\n

\nTaine Randell, pictured in 2002, captained the side 22 times.
\nPhoto: \u00a9 Photosport Ltd 2002 www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

RNZ has contacted Randell for comment.<\/p>\n

Labour is yet to confirm who it will stand in the electorate, which it held from 1996 to 2005, and 2020 to 2023.<\/p>\n

In the most recent RNZ-Reid Research Poll, New Zealand First was on 10.6 percent<\/a>, which would give it 13 seats – five more than it currently has.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks captain Taine Randell will stand as a New Zealand First candidate at this year’s election.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-379754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}