Allan Alaalatoa (born 28 January 1994) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

professional

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 ...

player who plays as a

prop A prop, formally known as a (theatrical) property, is an object actors use on stage or screen during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct ...

for the in

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 has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

and the Australian rugby union team, the Wallabies. Alaalatoa's father Vili is a fan of cricket and named him after the Australia cricket captain Allan Border. Alaalatoa's nickname with the Brumbies squad is also rumoured to be Captain Grumpy.

Career

Alaalatoa hails from a rugby family with father Vili playing for in the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup () was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Six Nations Championship, Five Na ...

and brother Michael also going on to play professionally with the

New South Wales Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), often referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team based in Sydney that represents the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby Pacific competition. The Waratahs play t ...

, the Crusaders and Leinster rugby. He attended

Newington College Newington College is a multi-campus Independent school, independent Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church Single-sex education, single-sex and Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primar ...

where he played for three years in the 1st XV and completed the HSC in 2011. His big break came ahead of the

2014 Super Rugby season The 2014 Super Rugby season is the fourth season of the 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as Asteron Life Super Rugby ...

when he was named in the Brumbies extended playing squad. He didn't get any game time during the regular season, but surprisingly was given a debut off the replacements bench in the Brumbies 32-30 victory over the during the Super Rugby playoffs.

International

Alaalatoa is in the rare position of having represented his country in 3 consecutive IRB Junior World Championships in 2012, 2013 and 2014. In 2016, Alaalatoa was named in the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

preliminary 39-man squad for the 2016 series against England. He has been selected for his first test against New Zealand, starting on the bench in the Bledisloe Cup on 20 August 2016. Alaalatoa became the Wallabies 85th captain in the third round of the

Autumn Nations Cup The Autumn Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held in November and December 2020 in place of the usual Autumn rugby union internationals, Autumn internationals series typically held in the same period each year, as many teams were avoidin ...

when the Wallabies played against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in a 28 to 27 loss, the Australian's first ever loss against Italy. In July 2023, Alaalatoa ruptured his achillies in a test against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, ruling him out of the

2023 Rugby World Cup The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

Super Rugby statistics

International statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alaalatoa, Allan 1994 births Australian rugby union players Australia national rugby union team captains Rugby union props Living people ACT Brumbies players Canberra Vikings players Sportsmen from New South Wales Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent People educated at Newington College Rugby union players from Sydney Australia international rugby union players 2019 Rugby World Cup players 21st-century Australian sportsmen