Allan Ala'alatoa (born 28 January 1994) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

professional player who plays as a

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct ...

for the in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

and the

Australian rugby union team The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the ...

, the Wallabies. Ala'alatoa's father Vili is a fan of cricket and named him after the Australia cricket captain Allan Border. Alaalatoa's nickname with the Brumbies squad is also rumoured to be Captain Grumpy.

Career

Alaalatoa hails from a rugby family with father Vili playing for in the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

and brother Michael also going on to play professionally with the

New South Wales Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state, ...

and the Crusaders. He attended

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

where he played for three years in the 1st XV and completed the HSC in 2011. His big break came ahead of the

2014 Super Rugby season The 2014 Super Rugby season is the fourth season of the 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as Asteron Life Super Rugby ...

when he was named in the Brumbies extended playing squad. He didn't get any game time during the regular season, but surprisingly was given a debut off the replacements bench in the Brumbies 32-30 victory over the during the Super Rugby playoffs.

International

Alaalatoa is in the rare position of having represented his country in 3 consecutive

IRB Junior World Championship The World Rugby Under 20 Championship (known as the IRB Junior World Championship until 2014) is an international rugby union competition. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, World Rugby, and is contested by 12 men's junior nat ...

s in 2012, 2013 and 2014. In 2016, Alaalatoa was named in the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

preliminary 39-man squad for the 2016 series against England. He has been selected for his first test against New Zealand, starting on the bench in the Bledisloe Cup on 20 August 2016. Ala'alatoa became the Wallabies 85th captain in the third round of the

Autumn Nations Cup The Autumn Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held in November and December 2020 in place of the usual Autumn internationals series typically held in the same period each year, as many teams were avoiding extended travel due to the COVID- ...

when the Wallabies played against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in a 28 to 27 loss, the Australian's first ever loss against Italy.https://all.rugby/match/18375/autumn-nations-series-2022/italy-australia

Super Rugby statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ala'alatoa, Allan 1994 births Australian rugby union players Australian rugby union captains Rugby union props Living people ACT Brumbies players Canberra Vikings players Sportsmen from New South Wales Australian people of Samoan descent People educated at Newington College Rugby union players from Sydney Australia international rugby union players