Samuel Vinsene Slade (born 28 August 1997) is a professional

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 as a

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

for

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 ...

club

Moana Pasifika Moana Pasifika is a rugby union team made up of players from various Pacific island nations as well as New Zealand or Australian born players of Pasifika heritage, including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. The team was originally creat ...

. Born in New Zealand, he represents

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 ...

at international level after qualifying on ancestry grounds.

Club career

Slade made his provincial debut for Auckland in 2017 and played 6 games and made the New Zealand Under 20's from that. In 2018 Samuel went on loan to Manawatu and played 8 times for the Province before going back up north in 2019 to Counties Manukau and since then has made 16 appearances for the union. In 2019 he was recruited to the

Colorado Raptors The American Raptors is a professional rugby union team based in the municipality of Glendale in Colorado. The team plays in the transcontinental Super Rugby Americas competition . Established as the Glendale Raptors in 2006, the team was a found ...

for the 2020 season. He has signed with

for the

2022 Super Rugby Pacific season The 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season (known as Harvey Norman Super Rugby Pacific in Australia and DHL Super Rugby Pacific in New Zealand) is the 27th season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams fr ...

International career

In 2021 Slade was selected for the Samoan national team to play 2 tests against the Maori All Black's and 2 against Tonga to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

References

External links

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Steelers profile

Ultimate Rugby profile
1997 births Samoan rugby union players Samoa international rugby union players Living people Rugby union flankers Auckland rugby union players Manawatu rugby union players Counties Manukau rugby union players Moana Pasifika players American Raptors players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Samoan expatriate rugby union players in the United States People educated at Mount Albert Grammar School {{Samoa-rugbyunion-bio-stub