Lome Fa'atau (born 23 October 1975 in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...

, New Zealand) is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

player. The speedy winger is recognisable by his traditional Samoan tattoo (pe'a). Before his rugby career took off, he attended St. Patrick's College in Wellington, where he was a star

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player for his college team. It was not until he left college did he begin playing

for the local club Marist St. Pat's, where he made his debut in the third grade division at fullback.

Career

He made his provincial debut in the 1999 season of the

National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to: * National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides * National Provincial Championship (2006–present) The National Provincial Championship, ...

in New Zealand, playing for

. The next year he joined

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and became the leading try scorer for the province that season. The following year he returned to his old province in Wellington. In 2002 he played for the

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in the international

Super 12 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 ...

competition. Two years later he joined the Chiefs before returning to the

. He made his debut for Manu Samoa in 2002. Fa'atau played on the wing in all matches for Samoa in the 2003 World Cup in Australia, except for the match against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

, Fa'atau scored one try during the World Cup. Fa'atau describes his best rugby memory as making the Manu Samoa team. The Hurricanes made it to the 2006 Super 14 final, where they went down to the Crusaders in bizarre weather. Although not finishing as champions, Fa'atau was not only the top try scorer for the Hurricanes, but the lead try scorer of the season amassing a total a grand total of 10 tries through a combination of graceful, elusive yet blisteringly fast running. Fa'atau joined Scottish side Glasgow after the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to ...

. After an indifferent two seasons with Glasgow he joined Nice who play in Federale 1 in France, and plays with former internationals Dan Luger, Ross Beattie, Kevin Yates and Mark McHugh, and England coach Martin Johnson's brother Will Johnson who used to play for Leicester Tigers.

Personal life

Lome is also a committed Christian and wears the initial "J" and "C" (for Jesus Christ) on his wristbands every match. His brother Eneliko (Ene) Fa'atau also plays rugby and is the player/coach for the Irish Leinster league division club Dundalk.

References

Lome is currently coaching Percy Park RFC in North Shields, Tyne & Wear. He also plays local league basketball for North Shields Tropic.

External links

Glasgow profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fa'atau, Lome 1975 births Living people Rugby union wings Samoan rugby union coaches Samoan rugby union players Glasgow Warriors players Rugby union players from Wellington City New Zealand people of Samoan descent Samoa international rugby union players Pacific Islanders rugby union players Samoan expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in Scotland Expatriate rugby union players in Italy Samoan expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Expatriate rugby union players in New Zealand Samoan expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Samoan expatriate sportspeople in Italy People educated at St. Patrick's College, Wellington Samoa international rugby sevens players Male rugby sevens players