Melodie Robinson is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 sports journalist and presenter, and former international rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 player for the New Zealand women's national rugby union team. She played 18 tests for the New Zealand women's team, the Black Ferns, from 1996 to 2002. Robinson won two world cups in that time, playing blindside or openside flanker. While playing rugby she gained a degree from the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

 (BA PHSE) and a journalism post grad in 1996. Her first work was in radio, working at the press gallery

Press gallery

The press gallery is the part of a parliament, or other legislative body, where political journalists are allowed to sit or gather to observe and then report speeches and events...

 in Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

 covering politics.

Her natural leanings towards sports led her to be the online sports producer for Xtramsn.co.nz from 1998-2002. While working at Xtra she produced websites like allblacks.com, teamnewzealand.com. Robinson went to Sky Sports in 2002 commentating and presenting for the Super 12 and NPC

National Provincial Championship

The National Provincial Championship, or NPC, is the major domestic rugby competition in New Zealand. The NPC has seen many alterations to its format and brand. Since 2006 the National Championship has been split into 2 competitions, the ITM Cup and the Heartland Championship...

. She is now the regular host of Friday Night Football with former All Black Ian Jones, the face of rugby for Prime TV

Prime Television New Zealand

Prime is the seventh national free-to-air television station in New Zealand. The station airs a mixed group of programmes, largely imported from Australia, the UK and the United States, as well as free-to-air rugby union, cricket and rugby league matches....

, plus she is a journalist on the popular show The Crowd Goes Wild

The Crowd Goes Wild

The Crowd Goes Wild is a half-hour sports show broadcast on New Zealand nationwide television channel Prime TV. The show premiered on Monday 26 June 2006....

.

She is reputedly the first woman to commentate an international rugby match, and is a former winner of the Miss Canterbury Beauty Pageant.