Junior Tupou (born 29 July 2002) is a professional rugby league

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a er for Wests Tigers in the National Rugby League (NRL).

Background

Tupou was born in New Zealand and raised in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, playing both codes of rugby football.

Career

2022

Tupou made his debut in Round 10 of the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season is the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest s ...

(Magic Round) for the Tigers against the North Queensland Cowboys, scoring a try in the 13th minute. Tupou played only four games for the Wests Tigers as the club finished bottom of the table and claimed the Wooden Spoon for the first time.

2023

In round 21 of the

2023 NRL season The 2023 NRL season is the 116th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 26th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams For the 2023 season, the number of teams in the NRL has increased from sixteen to seventeen with the ...

, Tupou scored two tries for the Wests Tigers in their 18-14 loss against

St. George Illawarra The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint-ve ...

. Before the game, the match was dubbed the "Spoon Bowl" by some media outlets due to the Wests Tigers being bottom of the table and St. George Illawarra sitting in second last position. Tupou was the leader for line breaks at the Wests Tigers in 2023, with 17, ranking him 19th in the entire competition. He was also 25th in the NRL for tackle breaks, again best for the Tigers. Tupou played a total of 22 games for the Wests Tigers in the

and scored six tries as the club finished with the wooden spoon for a second straight year. On 22 December 2023, it was announced that Tipou had signed a three-year deal with the Dolphins from the 2025 season.

References

External links

Wests Tigers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tupou, Junior 2002 births Living people Australian rugby league players Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Wests Tigers players Western Suburbs Magpies NSW Cup players Rugby league wingers Rugby league players from Canberra