Alamanda Lolo Motuga (born 11 September 1994) is a professional

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 who plays as a

flanker Flanker may refer to: * Flanker (perfume), a newly created perfume sharing attributes of an existing one * Flanker (rugby union), a position in rugby union (not found in rugby league) * ''Su-27 Flanker'' (video game), a 1996 computer game modelin ...

for

Super Rugby 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 ...

club

Moana Pasifika Moana Pasifika is a rugby union team made up of players from various Pacific island nations as well as New Zealand or Australian born players of Pasifika heritage, including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. The team was originally crea ...

. Born in New Zealand, he represents

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

at international level after qualifying on ancestry grounds.

Early life

Motuga was educated at

Manurewa High School , motto_translation = Rise to the Heavens , type = State co-ed secondary (year 9–13) , established = 1960 , address = 67 Browns RoadManurewaAuckland 2102New Zealand , coordinates = , principal = Pete Jones , roll = ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

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 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. He began playing rugby for Manurewa in the Counties-Manukau Amateur Federation Championship. He also played rugby sevens with the Auckland Marist team.

Club career

In 2020 he joined the squad for the

2020 Mitre 10 Cup The 2020 Mitre 10 Cup season was the fifteenth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on September 11, when North Harbour hosted Canterbury. It involved the top ...

. In November 2020 he represented

in their inaugural match against the

Māori All Blacks The Māori All Blacks, previously called the New Zealand Maori, New Zealand Maoris and New Zealand Natives, are a rugby union team from New Zealand. They are a representative team of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and a prerequisite for playing ...

. In October 2021 he signed to Moana Pacifica for the 2022 season.

International career

In February 2016 he was selected for the

Samoa national rugby sevens team The Samoa national rugby sevens team, referred to as Samoa Sevens or Manu Samoa 7s, competes in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. Representing the polynesian country of Samoa, with a population of about 202,000, the team competes against so ...

to play in the

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

legs of the

2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series The 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 17th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by ...

. In May 2016 he was part of the Samoan team that won the

2016 Paris Sevens The 2016 Paris Sevens was the ninth tournament of the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series The 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 17th annual series of rugby union ...

. He went on to represent Samoa in 36 sevens competitions from 2016. In July 2019 he was selected for the

Samoa national rugby union team The Samoa national rugby union team (also known as Manu Samoa) represents Samoa in men's international rugby union and it is governed by the Samoa Rugby Union. They are also known as Manu Samoa, which is thought to derive from the name of a Sam ...

for the

2019 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup The 2019 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup was the 14th Pacific Nations Cup, an annual international rugby union competition contested by the men's national teams of the Tier 2 rugby nations located around the Pacific: Canada, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, ...

, making his debut for the national side against Tonga. He performances for Samoa and Samoa Sevens earned him a call-up to the Samoa squad for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

as a replacement for Afa Amosa.

References

External links

*
Rugby World Cup profile
1994 births Samoan rugby union players Samoa international rugby union players Living people Rugby union flankers Moana Pasifika players Counties Manukau rugby union players 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players {{Samoa-rugbyunion-bio-stub