Alehana Mara (born 6 November 1989) is a Tokelauan former professional international

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who last played for the

Wynnum Manly Seagulls The Wynnum Manly Seagulls are an Australian rugby league football club based at Kougari Oval, in Brisbane's bayside suburb of Manly West, Queensland, Manly West, which neighbours the suburb of Wynnum, Queensland, Wynnum. They competed in the Bri ...

in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league, rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League, Queensland Rugby ...

. Mara previously played for the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

Early life

Born in

Wellington Wellington 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 third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand, Mara is of

Ni-Vanuatu Ni-Vanuatu (informally abbreviated Ni-Van) is a large group of closely related Melanesians, Melanesian ethnic groups native to the island country of Vanuatu. As such, ''ni-Vanuatu'' are a mixed ethnolinguistic group with a shared ethnogenesis tha ...

descent through his father, and Tokelauan descent through his mother. He attended St Patrick's College and represented the school in

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

. Mara played his junior rugby league for the St George club in the

Wellington Rugby League Wellington Rugby League is the local sporting body responsible for the administration of Rugby league in the Wellington Region, Greater Wellington region. It is responsible for the local competition of the same name, as well as its representative ...

competition. He represented the

Junior Kiwis The Junior Kiwis side represents New Zealand in the sport of rugby league. They are commonly known as the Junior Kiwis, after the native bird of that name. Since 2010, they are an under-20s side, with players selected from the NRL, Intrust Sup ...

in 2006 and the NZ under-18 team in 2007 before going onto play for the

Wellington Orcas The Wellington Rugby League Team (also known as the Wellington Orcas) are a rugby league team that represents the Wellington Rugby League in New Zealand Rugby League competitions. They currently compete in the National Competition. History 1 ...

in the

Bartercard Cup The Bartercard Cup (successor of the Lion Red Cup) was the top level rugby league club competition in New Zealand from 2000 until 2007. For the entire life of the tournament it was sponsored by Bartercard. The cup was administered by the New Ze ...

Playing career

Mara joined the

in 2008 for the inaugural season of the Under 20's National Youth Competition. He played 39 games for the Juniors Warriors over two seasons, scoring eleven tries and finishing the 2009 season as the squads' captain. When he moved into the Warriors' first grade squad, Mara found himself behind Nathan Friend as the team's first choice hooker. He spent much of his time playing for the Warriors' feeder team, the

Auckland Vulcans The Auckland Vulcans were an Auckland based rugby league club that participated in the New South Wales Cup. They were administered by the Rugby League Development Foundation. The team was selected from the Auckland Rugby League's Fox Memorial C ...

, in the

New South Wales Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

. He made his NRL for the Warriors on 21 August 2010 against the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...

. In May 2011, Mara re-signed with the Warriors until the end of 2013. Mara represented

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

in their first ever Test match, against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on 20 October 2012. In 2014, Mara joined the

in the

competition. Mara played with Wynnum Manly up until the end of 2016.

References

External links

New Zealand Warriors Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mara, Alehana 1989 births Living people Auckland rugby league team players Junior Kiwis players New Zealand people of Tokelauan descent New Zealand people of Vanuatuan descent New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand Warriors players People educated at St Patrick's College, Wellington Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Porirua Vanuatu national rugby league team players Wellington rugby league team players Wynnum Manly Seagulls players