Teofilo Aloisio Mikaele Paulo (born 6 November 1987) is a New Zealand-born Samoan rugby union player. He specialises as a lock forward. He plays for

Manawatu Turbos The Manawatu Rugby Football Union (MRU) is the governing body of the sport of rugby union in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. Founded in 1886, Manawatu is one of New Zealand's oldest rugby unions. In 1892, the MRU, amongst other ...

in the NPC.

Career

Paulo had a brief stint with Ulster in 2009, for whom he made two Celtic League appearances. In 2010 he was named as a member of the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

wider training squad, however an injury to Ali Williams meant he was called into the full squad. He was a full squad member since 2011. Paulo made his provincial debut for North Harbour in 2011. In January 2013 he joined the Welsh team

Cardiff Blues Cardiff Rugby ( cy, Rygbi Caerdydd) are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby competitions. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms ...

, making 75 appearances over two seasons. From 2015 to 2017 he played for Benetton Treviso. On 5 June 2017 it was announced he had signed for English Premiership side London Irish from the following season. He made 30 appearances for the team before leaving in 2019. He rejoined the Cardiff Blues in 2019 for a one-year contract, leaving at the end of the season. He then returned to New Zealand where he played for the

. He was not retained for the 2021 season, moving to Wellington team Avalon. On 23 August 2019, he was named in Samoa's 34-man training squad for 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 ...

, before being named in the final 31 on 31 August.

References

External links