Penioni Tagituimua (born 20 January 1999) is a Fijian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

footballer who plays as a or for the

Kaiviti Silktails The Kaiviti Silktails are a semi-professional rugby league football club from Fiji and currently based in Sydney. They compete in the NSWRL's Ron Massey Cup, and will advance to the Knock-On Effect(KOE) NSW Cup in 2023. The Silktails will be a ...

in the

Ron Massey Cup The Ron Massey Cup (formerly known as the Bundaberg Red Cup and Jim Beam Cup) is a semi-professional development level rugby league competition in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, run jointly by the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) and the ...

and Fiji at international level.

Playing career

Tagituimua began playing rugby league in 2013 for the Nadera Panthers. While attending Suva Grammar School in 2015, he was awarded a three-year

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 it ...

scholarship at

Ellesmere College (''Striving for one's country'') , established = 1879 , song = ''Jerusalem'' , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding schoolDay School , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

. In 2019, Tagituimua was the only player from the Fijian domestic competition to be included in 's squad for their mid-season match against . Initially selected to be the 18th man, a number of injuries and unavailabilities allowed him to make his Test debut off the interchange bench in the 56–14 win. In November, Tagituimua played off the interchange bench in both of Fiji's

Oceania Cup The Oceania Cup is an international men's field hockey competition organised by Oceania Hockey Federation (OHF). It is held every two years to determine which teams will receive an automatic berth to the Men's FIH Hockey World Cup and Summer Olymp ...

matches. Tagituimua joined the

for their inaugural season in 2020, scoring twice in their first and only match of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

affected year. In 2021, Tagituimua was named the captain of the Kaiviti side. On 23 May 2021, he made his NSW Cup debut after being called into the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in t ...

' team to play

Mounties The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

. In the second group stage match of the

2021 Rugby League World Cup The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received £ ...

, Tagituimua scored two tries for Fiji in their 60-4 victory over Italy.

Personal life

Tagituimua's father Ilaitia is a pastor and was a spiritual adviser for the Fijian team at the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

, and

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

s. Tagituimua's uncle Nemani Matirewa was a Fijian

dual-code rugby international A dual-code rugby international is a rugby footballer who has played at the senior international level in both codes of rugby, 13-a-side rugby league and 15-a-side rugby union. Rugby league started as a breakaway version of rugby in Northern Eng ...

who was a pioneer of rugby league in the country.

References

External links

Fiji profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tagituimua, Penioni 1999 births Living people Fijian rugby league players Fiji national rugby league team players Kaiviti Silktails captains Kaiviti Silktails players Nadera Panthers players North Sydney Bears NSW Cup players Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league hookers