Belgium Tuatagaloa (born 19 September 1989) is a

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 ...

player who has represented the

New Zealand Sevens The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record twelve World Rugby Sevens Series titles. The team has been o ...

team, in 2012 and 2013, and in sevens 2015-2017 and in fifteens from 2019. Born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand, he qualifies for Samoa through heritage. He has played for

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

in the

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Global School, an English medium co-educational day school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Tekn ...

and for Valence Romans Rugby in France's Fédérale 1, the third division. He currently plays for

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

in the

Pro D2 Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was in ...

. He has also played for London Irish and in 2022 played for Racing 92 in the Supersevens Tournament where he was named in the tournament team. Initially a promising New Zealand boxer, Tuatagaloa fell into rugby in his late teens (2007) and the athletically strong runner impressed with his quick grasp of the game. He was spotted by Sir Gordon Tietjens, the celebrated coach of the New Zealand men's national team in rugby sevens, the All Blacks Sevens. He quickly rose through the NZ development system and in 2012 his form saw him make his debut for the New Zealand Sevens team. For two years 2012 and 2013 he became a regular feature on the IRB World Rugby Sevens Circuit. During this time the All Black Sevens team was the winner of the IRB Sevens World Series in 2012 and 2013. As a result of his good handling and defensive skills combined with his speed and elusiveness, Tuatagaloa also gained a contract with provincial powerhouse Canterbury in 2013 where he was also drafted into Crusaders Squad for the 2013 season. Tuatagaloa made his provincial debut for Canterbury in 2013. Unfortunately, a broken leg bought a sudden end to his relationship with Canterbury and the Crusaders Squad. Once recovered from injury the Olympic rules allowed Tuatagaloa to switch to the Samoan national sevens team to play in the 2015 through to 2018 seasons which included a memorable IRB Tournament win in Paris 2016. He played in France for Valence Romans Rugby (French Fédérale 1) and was the leading try scorer in this competition with 18 tries in the 2018–19 season. He predominantly plays on the wing (left and right), but also plays inside-centre, outside-centre and fullback. Due to fears over his availability during the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

his contract was not renewed for following season. In December 2019 it was confirmed he had signed with

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

side

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

for the remainder of the season. He later signed with

outfit

in France for the 2020–21 season.

References

External links