Taione Vea (born 1 December 1988) is a former

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 ...

rugby union player who most recently played for Newcastle Falcons in the

Aviva Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

, and represented the

national team on six occasions in 2013.

Club career

Vea first joined the New Zealand outfit North Harbour, in 2010 to compete in 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 ...

campaigns. After three years, he moved to England as he was signed by

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...

ahead of the 2013–14 season. On 11 June 2014, Vea signed for newly promoted side London Welsh ahead of the 2014–15 season. On 17 March 2015, Vea signed for Newcastle Falcons for the upcoming 2015–16 season. Due to a serious spinal injury he suffered during the Aviva Premiership game against

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks is a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Originally founded in 1861 as Sale Football Club, now a distinct amateur club, they adopted the n ...

on 2 September 2016, Vea was unfortunately forced to retire from rugby.

International career

Vea made his international debut for

, where he started in the

2013 IRB Pacific Nations Cup The 2013 Pacific Nations Cup rugby union tournament was held between five national sides in the Pacific Region: Canada national rugby union team, Canada, Fiji national rugby union team, Fiji, Japan national rugby union team, Japan, Tonga national r ...

defeating

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

27–17. His last test appearance came to the 2013 Autumn Internationals where they were defeated by

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

17–7. He was selected again for Tonga for the 2014 Autumn Internationals.

References

External links

London Welsh Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vea, Taione 1988 births Living people Rugby union players from Auckland Tongan rugby union players Tonga international rugby union players Rugby union props Wasps RFC players London Welsh RFC players Newcastle Falcons players North Harbour rugby union players