Bradley Carnegie Thorn (born 3 February 1975) is a New Zealand Australian rugby union coach and former rugby league and rugby union footballer. Born in New Zealand, he represented Australia in rugby league and New Zealand in rugby union in a twenty-two year career as a player, starting at age nineteen and finishing at age forty-one. He was the head coach of the Australian Super Rugby Pacific team, the Queensland Reds. Thorn is their second longest-serving coach in history and their longest serving coach in the professional era.
Thorn played rugby league for the Brisbane Broncos in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) competition for a total of ten seasons in two spells, and represented Queensland in the State of Origin series. He played eight times for Australia – five for the Kangaroos, and three games for the Super League Australia team. His preferred position in rugby league was in the , though he was equally effective as a . In 2000 Thorn was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league.
He first moved to rugby union in 2001 and, over two spells in the sport, became one of the most successful rugby union players. A lock, he was the first player to win a World Cup, a Super Rugby title and the Heineken Cup, despite only moving to the sport in his mid-twenties. He won fifty-nine international caps for New Zealand, and was part of the team that won the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Thorn holds the world record for the oldest player to play in the final of a World Cup match and win it, aged 36 years, 262 days vs France 23 October 2011.
Early and personal life
Thorn was born in Mosgiel, just outside Dunedin in south-eastern Otago. When Thorn was five-years-old, his family moved to south-central Otago (Cromwell/Bannockburn). Moving again, Thorn’s family left for Brisbane, Queensland, Australia when he was nine-years-old (1984), and was educated at Aspley East State School and Aspley State High School.
Growing up in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Thorn played junior rugby league for Norths Aspley and Wests Arana Panthers.
With the help of Kangaroos teammate Jason Stevens, Thorn became a born-again Christian in 1998. Thorn stated to the The Times: “I do feel now I have purpose, believe there is a God that loves me. I want be a good father and husband and in a footy context give my best.” A few years later, in 2011, Thorn said to Stuff: “I had money, a car, a house – I thought these things would make me happy. But once I got there and got all these things, I still felt unfulfilled. I felt empty ... it was only when I put my faith in Jesus that life changed for me.”
Rugby league career
Brisbane Broncos
1994–2000
Thorn made his first grade debut in the NSWRL for the Brisbane Broncos, who were then defending premiers, in the 1994 Winfield Cup season's 12th round against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. At season's end he was awarded the club's rookie of the year award.
At the outbreak of the Super League war in 1995 Thorn, along with the rest of his Broncos teammates and players of several other clubs, was aligned with Super League and so ineligible for selection in the Australian Rugby League's 1995 State of Origin series or post-season 1995 Rugby League World Cup. The following year, when all players were again allowed to be selected for representative football, Thorn's debut for the Queensland Maroons came in Game I of the 1996 State of Origin series. He held his place at second-row forward for all three games of that series.
In the 1997 Super League season Thorn played in all three games for Queensland in that year's Super League Tri-series. He also made his international debut for Australia against New Zealand. Thorn won his first premiership with the Broncos when they defeated the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the 1997 Super League grand final in Brisbane. In the 1997 post season, Thorn was selected to travel to England and play for Australia at prop forward in all three matches of the Super League Test series against Great Britain, scoring a try in the third and deciding test victory. It was on this tour that his front-row partner Jason Stevens helped convince Thorn to convert to Christianity.
Following the sport's re-unification under the National Rugby League, Thorn was selected in Game II of the 1998 State of Origin series. He also continued to represent Australia in all three Tests of the 1998 international series against New Zealand. Thorn also played at second-row forward in the Broncos' victory at the 1998 NRL Grand Final, winning his second premiership ring.