Billy Weepu is a New Zealand former

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 played for the

Manly 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 seaso ...

in the

NRL 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 ...

, and is now a news camera operator. He is the brother of

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

Piri Weepu Piri Awahou Tihou Weepu (born 7 September 1983) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Weepu played most recently for Wairarapa Bush in the Heartland Championship. Generally Weepu played as a half-back but also played at first five-eig ...

Playing career

Early years

Weepu started his career with the

Wainuiomata Lions The Wainuiomata Lions are a New Zealand rugby league club based in Wainuiomata, Wellington. They compete in the Wellington Rugby League competition. In the early 1990s, prior to the creation Lion Red Cup national league competition based on pr ...

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.

Manly Sea Eagles

He was then scouted by Manly and joined the club in 1994. He went on to play 13 first grade games for the club in 1995 and 1997 as well as becoming a regular in reserve grade. He was regarded as one of the heaviest players to play in the Australian competition.

Return to New Zealand

Weepu played for both

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 ...

and

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

in the 1999 National Provincial Competition, becoming the subject of a NZRL appeal.Canterbury to protest Taranaki win
''Taranaki Daily News'', 27 September 1999 Along with fellow Wellington prop, Tino Brown, Weepu was later ruled ineligible to play for the Taranaki Sharks. With the start of 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 ...

in 2000 Weepu was part of the

side that participated in the first two seasons. In 2002, with the demise of the Lions, he moved to the

Central Falcons The Manawatu rugby league team are a rugby league team that represents the Manawatu Rugby League in New Zealand Rugby League competitions. They have the nickname the Mustangs and between 2002 and 2007 competed in the Bartercard Cup as the Central ...

.Tornadoes' storming run
''The Evening Standard'', 27 May 2002

Representative career

Weepu was selected for 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 1994.''Lion Red Rugby League Annual 1994'',

New Zealand Rugby Football League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood '' ...

, 1994. p.154 In 2000 Weepu represented New Zealand Māori. In 2015 Weepu played for the New Zealand Parliamentary rugby team that played in the United Kingdom for Parliamentary World Cup.

Later years

Weepu worked as a

Camera operator A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not necessarily imply that a male is performing the task. ...

for TV3's

Campbell Live ''Campbell Live'' is a half-hour-long New Zealand current affairs programme that was broadcast from 2005–2015 on at 7 pm (following 3 News) on TV3 and was hosted by John Campbell. ''Campbell Live'' conducted interviews of various notable p ...

until 2015. He previously worked on

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

.Watch it and Weepu
''Sydney Morning Herald'', 12 August 2005 He remains with Newshub as of 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weepu, Billy Living people 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen Junior Kiwis players Manawatu rugby league team players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand Māori rugby league team players New Zealand people of Niuean descent New Zealand rugby league players Rugby league players from Wellington City Rugby league props Taranaki rugby league team players Wainuiomata Lions players Wellington rugby league team players Year of birth missing (living people)