Kalolo E. Tuiloma (born 24 June 1990) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

born

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

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. His position is

Tighthead prop In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

Early career

Born in Wellington, but raised in the suburbs of Auckland, Tuiloma originally played in the number eight position for Aorere College before heading south to complete his schooling at

Timaru Boys' High School Timaru Boys' High School (also known as TBHS), established in 1880, is a single sex state (public) secondary school located in the port city of Timaru, South Canterbury, New Zealand. TBHS caters for years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 19 years). At th ...

where he played in the 1st XV. After school, he played

Heartland Championship The Heartland Championship competition, known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship, is a domestic rugby union competition in New Zealand. It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the countr ...

rugby with South Canterbury in 2013, however soon after his career went on a downward spiral. Unable to crack 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 ...

team, he turned to food and alcohol and saw his weight balloon to 181 kg. Seeking help he moved back to the Auckland area to be closer to his family and joined the Bombay Rugby club who were at the time coached by

Darryl Suasua Darryl Bill Suasua (born 1966) is the current head coach of Counties Manukau in the Mitre 10 Cup, and a former coach of the New Zealand women's national rugby union team. He coached the Black Ferns for seven years in which they won both the 19 ...

. Suasua saw Tuiloma's potential to be a prop forward and began converting him from a loose forward to a front rower. While at Bombay, he helped them to win the McNamara Cup, Counties Manukau's Premier club competition in both 2014 and 2015.

Senior career

Tuiloma was first named in the Counties Manukau Steelers squad ahead of the

2016 Mitre 10 Cup The 2016 Mitre 10 Cup season was the eleventh season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 18, when North Harbour hosted Counties Manukau. It involved the ...

where he again linked up with former Bombay coach Darryl Suasua, who was now in charge of the Steelers. Preseason injuries to experienced front row pair Pauliasi Manu and

Nepo Laulala Nepo Eti Laulala (born 6 November 1991) is a New Zealand rugby union footballer who plays as a Tighthead Prop for Counties Manukau Steelers in the Mitre 10 Cup, the Blues in Super Rugby and for the national All Blacks, having made his interna ...

opened the door for Tuiloma, who quickly cemented himself as a regular starter in the number 3 jersey. He played all 11 of Counties Manukau's games during the campaign and scored 4 tries, including a memorable hattrick against as the Steelers reached the Premiership semi finals before going down to . In October 2016, it was announced that Tuiloma would take up a 7 month contract with French side Grenoble where he would serve as an injury replacement until the end of the 2016–17 season. In December 2021 he signed a deal to return to Major League Rugby with Rugby New York for the 2022 Major League Rugby season.

References