page_title: Tana Umaga
section_title: 2006 and 2007
hierarchical_section_title: Tana Umaga / Rugby union career / 2006 and 2007
caption_attribution_description: Tana Umaga farewelling fans after his final match for the Wellington Hurricanes
context_page_description: Jonathan Ionatana Falefasa "Tana" Umaga ONZM is a New Zealand former rugby union footballer and former captain of the national team, the All Blacks. Since 2016 he has been coach of the Blues in the Super Rugby competition.
  He played for the Hurricanes from Super 12's inception in 1996 and took over the captaincy in 2003. Graham Henry named him as All Blacks captain in 2004; under his leadership the All Blacks won 19 of their 22 games including the clean sweep of the British and Irish Lions and the Grand Slam in 2005. At the end of 2005, after 74 Test caps, Umaga retired from international rugby. Umaga played four games in 2007 for the Wellington Lions in the Air New Zealand Cup, to play 100 matches for the province, before taking up the position of coach at Toulon.
  During his first season coaching in 2008–09 season Toulon was a poor performer in the first half of the season and facing a relegation scare, and there was speculation that he would be replaced by Philippe Saint-André. Umaga returned to a playing role for Toulon in the second half of that season, and at the same time announced that he would not continue as head coach beyond that season.
context_section_description: For the 2006 Super 14 season Umaga handed the Hurricanes captaincy to All Black number eight Rodney So'oialo to focus on his own game. The Hurricanes reached the semi-finals for the third time in four years. Out drinking after the 2006 Super 14 Final – in which the Hurricanes lost to the Crusaders – Umaga was seen in a bar hitting team mate Chris Masoe with a woman's handbag, breaking her cell phone, after Masoe allegedly attempted to strike another patron. Umaga replaced the woman's damaged cell phone, and the woman went on to sell her handbag and broken cell phone for NZD23,000 on the New Zealand internet auction site Trade Me. In the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours, Umaga was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to rugby.
  In the months to come he was reported to be on the wish lists of many top European clubs; his former All Black's teammate Andrew Mehrtens was forced to publicly deny rumours that Umaga was a target of his club at the time – Harlequins. Umaga eventually signed for French club Toulon that had been recently relegated from the Top 14 to Pro D2. His contract allowed him to play the entire 2006 Air New Zealand Cup (ANZ Cup) season for Wellington before travelling to France. He ended up playing only seven matches for Toulon as Wellington made the ANZ Cup final. He nonetheless made roughly €350,000 (US$438,000/GBP 250,000) that Toulon's co-presidents reportedly paid out of their own pockets. The day before playing his first match for Toulon he was awarded the medal of honour of the city of Toulon (médaille d'or de la ville) by Mayor Hubert Falco. On 29 October 2006, Umaga started in his first game three days after arriving in Toulon scoring his team's only try in a 22–16 victory against Lyon. He was surprised to see how close to the players the fans were and how noisy the atmosphere was.
  Umaga returned to New Zealand at the end of his contract with Toulon following their 7 January 2007 win over Grenoble. When Umaga arrived in Toulon they were ninth in the Pro D2 table; when he left they had risen to third. Toulon won eight of nine matches with Umaga on the roster – the only loss coming when he was out injured. Umaga played his last season for the Hurricanes in 2007. His last match for them was on 5 May 2007 at Wellington's Westpac Stadium. On 25 September 2007, Umaga released a book detailing his career.
caption: Tana Umaga waving goodbye to fans during his last match
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