Education
University of Auckland.
University of Auckland.
Donald signed for English Premiership club Bath Rugby for a 2 1⁄2-year deal. The Blues denied reports saying Donald had signed with them for the 2012 Super Rugby season as a replacement for Stephen Brett and Luke McAlister, who are both heading overseas. On 1 April 2013, it was announced Donald would leave Bath Rugby to join Japanese side Mitsubishi Dynaboars in the Top League for the 2013/14 season.
Despite an international career that had not lived up to expectations, he played for the All Blacks from 2008 till 2011.
Donald, aka "The Beaver", kicked the winning penalty in the 2011 Institutional Review Board Rugby World Cup Final for New Zealand. He missed a penalty that would have put the game out of reach.
Then in the last minute of the game he failed to find touch with a clearing kick. The Australians gathered the ball and launched a counterattack from which James O’Connor scored a try.
O’Connor kicked the winning conversion, and the blame for the loss fell on Donald.
A cartoon by Tom Scott in the lead-up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup Final described it as a "nightmare" if New Zealand"s fate was left in his hands. However, he came on for the injured Aaron Cruden in the first half of the World Cup Final (making his World Cup debut) and kicked what turned out to be the winning penalty goal. In honour of his contribution to winning the World Cup, his local rugby club in Waiuku has renamed their home ground to Beaver Park.
A biopic on Donald"s journey to the world cup final entitled "The Kick" screened on Television New Zealand on 10 August 2014.