Sio Siua Taukeiaho (born 3 January 1992) is a 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 112 ...

footballer who plays as a or for the

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons ( French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from ...

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. He plays for

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and played for

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 ...

at international level. He previously played for the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

and

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

(NRL). He won back-to-back NRL premierships with the Roosters in 2018 and 2019.

Background

Taukeiaho was born in

Ōtara Ōtara is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand (formerly Manukau City), situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tamaki River (actually an arm of the Hauraki Gulf), which extends south tow ...

, South Auckland, New Zealand.

Playing career

Taukeiaho is of Tongan descent and played for the

Otara Scorpions The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is responsible for rugby league in the region, including both club and school rugby league. It began in 1910 when the fi ...

in 2010 before being signed by the

. He played in the 2011 Toyota Cup winning Junior Warriors and was named in the

Junior Kiwis The Junior Kiwis side represents New Zealand in the sport of rugby league. They are commonly known as the Junior Kiwis, after the native bird of that name. Since 2010, they are an under-20s side, with players selected from the NRL, Intrust Super ...

that year. He made his first grade debut in round 26 against the

St. George Illawarra Dragons 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 ...

on 7 September 2013. At the end of the 2013 season he requested, and was granted, his release from the Warriors. Taukeiaho would then tweet on 27 September 2013 that he signed with the Roosters for two years. Taukeiaho came into the 2015 NRL season as the Roosters' replacement for the departed

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the List of dual-code rugby internationals#New ...

. Taukeiaho was a surprise inclusion on the interchange to start the 2015 season, his great early form cemented his spot as he went on to play every game of the season, scoring 2 tries. Taukeiaho played for

against Papua New Guinea in an end of year test match in the PNG while on 2 May 2015 in the Gold Coast, he played for Tonga in their Polynesian Cup clash with Pacific rivals Samoa. On 30 September 2018, Taukeiaho played in Eastern Suburbs 21–6 victory over Melbourne in the 2018 NRL grand final. Taukeiaho made a total of 20 appearances for the

in the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

as the club finished second on the table and qualified for the finals. Taukeiaho played from the bench in the

2019 NRL Grand Final The 2019 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2019 National Rugby League season and was played at Sydney's ANZ Stadium. The match was contested between defending premiers the Sydney Roosters and the Canberra Ra ...

as the Sydney Roosters won their second consecutive premiership defeating Canberra 14–8 at

ANZ Stadium ANZ may refer to: People * Anz (musician), a British DJ and electronic musician Banks * ANZ (bank), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Australia ** ANZ Bank New Zealand, the largest bank in New Zealand ...

. On 2 November 2019, Taukeiaho captained Tonga against Australia as they went on to win 16–12, causing one of the biggest upsets in international rugby league history. He played a total of 21 games for the Sydney Roosters in the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

including the club's two finals matches. The

would be eliminated from the second week of the finals losing to Manly 42-6.

References

External links

Sydney Roosters profile2017 RLWC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taukeiaho, Sio Siua 1992 births Living people Auckland rugby league team players Catalans Dragons players Junior Kiwis players New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand people of Tongan descent New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand Warriors players Otara Scorpions players Rugby league locks Rugby league players from Auckland Rugby league second-rows Sydney Roosters players Tonga national rugby league team captains Tonga national rugby league team players Tongan sportspeople