Filipo Daugunu (born 4 March 1995) 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 plays for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competition ...

in the

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 ...

competition. His position of choice is

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

. Fijian-born, Daugunu moved to Australia in 2016 at the age of 20 to pursue a professional sporting career. He was selected to play international rugby for in October 2020.

Early career

Daugunu started his sporting career playing football for his local district football team, Labasa Football. He played both as a goalkeeper and a striker, and became a regular in the Labasa team in 2013. In 2015, Daugunu gave up an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

career to play

, representing Fiji Under-20 at the World Rugby Junior Trophy in Portugal. He was involved with the Fiji 7s program in 2016, but opted out of joining the team to play on the world circuit. He moved to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia and began playing club rugby there. Daugunu gained significant attention in

Queensland Premier Rugby Queensland Premier Rugby is a semi professional club rugby union competition in Queensland, Australia. Nine clubs play in the competition, eight of which are from Brisbane with one club from the Gold Coast. The premiership has been contested ...

after scoring sixty-six points from eleven appearances for Wests Bulldogs in 2017. After helping Wests to their first finals appearance in ten years, losing 24–22 to Sunnybank in the semi-finals, he was recruited to play in the

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

(NRC) for Queensland Country. Daugunu scored seventy-one points in just eight appearances for Queensland Country on the way to club's first national title. He scored a hat-trick in the final against the

Canberra Vikings The Canberra Vikings, formerly the Canberra Kookaburras, is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is based at Viking Park in Wanniassa, and is backed by the Tuggeranong Vikin ...

which was instrumental to Country's 42–28 win.

Super Rugby

Because of his performances in the NRC, the

signed him in late 2017 to join their squad for the

2018 Super Rugby season The 2018 Super Rugby season was the 23rd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. After two seasons in which 18 teams participate ...

International tries

''As of 20 November 2021''

Super Rugby statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daugunu, Filipo 1995 births Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Fijian rugby union players Living people Rugby union wings Queensland Country (NRC team) players Queensland Reds players People from Labasa