Toni Pulu (born 28 November 1989) is a

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 currently plays as a

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for the

Seattle Seawolves The Seattle Seawolves are an American professional rugby union team based in Tukwila, Washington. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby (MLR), the top-level rugby union competition in the United States that began play ...

in the MLR competition. He previously played for the and .

Early life

Born in the United States, Pulu moved to New Zealand at the age of 3 and attended high school at

Dilworth School Dilworth School, often referred to simply as Dilworth, is an independent full boarding school for boys in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest full boarding school in both the country and Australasia. Owned and operated by a charitable tru ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. After leaving school, he played local club rugby for the Bombay rugby club, in the Counties Manukau local leagues in the suburbs of Auckland.

Senior career

Pulu began his professional career in New Zealand playing for the Counties Manukau Steelers during the

2012 ITM Cup 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. He immediately became a regular starter on the wing for the men from Pukekohe and his impressive performances helped them win the ITM Cup Championship and earn promotion to the Premiership for

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. He scored 2 tries in 9 appearances in the Steelers first season in the Premiership in which they finished up in 4th place on the log before being thrashed 41-10 by in the semi-finals. Pulu remained try-less in 8 games through

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as Counties finished just outside the play-off places in 5th spot. His try scoring form returned in

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with 3 tries in 9 appearances while injury held him back the following year, limiting him to just 4 appearances, in which he scored two 5-pointers in Counties Manukau's run to the Mitre 10 Cup semi-finals. 2023 NPC Season - Back in the hoops for the Counties Manukau Steelers.

Super Rugby

As a result of 3 years of impressive domestic performances for Counties Manukau, Pulu earned a spot in the wider training group for the

2015 Super Rugby season The 2015 Super Rugby season was the 20th season of Super Rugby and the fifth season featuring an expanded 15-team format. For sponsorship reasons, this competition was known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New ...

. Injuries prevented him from playing during his debut season in

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, but he was retained in the wider training group for 2016. He made his debut for the Chiefs in the 53-10 win over the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...

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on 27 March 2016 and marked the occasion with a try. He went on to play 12 times throughout the season and scored an impressive 5 tries as the Chiefs reached the competition's semi-finals before going down to New Zealand rivals and eventual tournament winners, the . He was subsequently promoted to the full squad for the

2017 Super Rugby season The 2017 Super Rugby season was the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the second season featuring an expand ...

International

Pulu has played sevens rugby for his ancestral home,

Niue Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tong ...

, with the highlight being his appearance at the

2011 Gold Coast Sevens The 2011 Gold Coast Sevens was the first tournament of the 2011-2012 Sevens World Series It was held over the weekend of 25–26 November 2011 at Robina Stadium (known for sponsorship reasons as Skilled Park) in Queensland, Australia. The tourna ...

. In 2018, due to being eligible for Australia despite having represented Niue, he moved to the Brumbies. Pulu is eligible to represent USA rugby due to new eligibility rules.

Career honours

Counties Manukau * Mitre 10 Cup Championship -

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Super Rugby statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pulu, Toni 1989 births Living people Rugby union wings Counties Manukau rugby union players Chiefs (rugby union) players Male rugby sevens players American people of Niuean descent American emigrants to New Zealand People educated at Dilworth School ACT Brumbies players Canberra Vikings players Western Force players Seattle Seawolves players