Alatasi Tupou
| Birth name | Alatasi Tupou | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | April 21, 1988 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Apia, Samoa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 87 kg (192 lb; 13.7 st) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alatasi Tupou (born April 21, 1988) is a Samoan professional rugby union player from Apia, Samoa. He has represented Samoa in both rugby fifteens and sevens and currently plays with Mystic River in the American Rugby Premeireship.
Rugby career
Fifteens
Tupou first represented Samoa with the Samoan U20 team in 2008. He was quickly called up to the senior national fifteen a side team that same year, making his debut as the starting full-back against the New Zealand All Blacks on September 3, 2008, becoming the first junior player to graduate from playing in the IRB Junior World Championship to win full Test honors.[1] The following year he was named as a replacement scrum half for Samoa's Rugby World Cup Qualifier match against Papua New Guinea.[2]
Sevens
Tupou has been a regular on the Samoan Sevens roster since he was eighteen years old and has been considered one of the top play makers of the World Rugby Sevens Series, scoring 467 points in nearly 200 matches throughout his 48 tournament appearances between 2006 and 2015.[3] In 2012, Tupou made headlines during the 2012 Wellington Sevens after he was tackled by an inebriated spectator who rushed onto the field during Samoa's final match of pool play against New Zealand.[4]
In November 2016, Tupou was named to the Manu Samoan team to compete in the Dubai and South African legs of the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series.[5]
Club career
In 2014, Tupou played for the Shirley Rugby Club in Christchurch, New Zealand. He later signed with the Mystic River Rugby Club in Boston, Massachusetts in 2015, helping them win a bronze medal in the USA Rugby Club 7s Championship Series.[6] Tupou stayed with the Mystics for their 2015-2016 fifteen a side campaign in the American Rugby Premiership, helping them to a national title. Tupou scored 17 points (1 try, 2 penalties, 3 conversions) in the final match of the USA Rugby Emirates Airline Club Men's Division I National Championship, earning Most Valuable Player honors.[7]
References
- ^ "U20 Championship 2015: Pool B preview". www.worldrugby.org. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- ^ "Alatasi Tupou Statistics". www.espn.co.uk. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- ^ "Sevens Series Player Profile: Alatasi Tupou". www.worldrugby.org. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- ^ Staff (February 4, 2012). "Pitch invader spoils good first day behaviour". www.stuff.co.nz. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- ^ Sevaaetasi, Sina (November 25, 2016). "Manu Samoa Sevens named". Samoa Observer. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|website=(help) - ^ Anker, Brett (July 15, 2015). "Mystic looking to beat Old Blue at Hellgate". www.rugbytoday.com. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- ^ Wise, Chad (June 4, 2016). "Men's DI Crown earned by Mystic River in heavy-hitting final against Austin Blacks". usarugby.com. Retrieved June 6, 2016.