Kerry Cooper Vuna (born 7 May 1987) is a professional

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union or rugby league. Rugby football started at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, where the rules were first codified in 1845. Forms of football in which the ball ...

er who plays on the wing for

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

. He played

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 ...

as a 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 ...

and

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

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 ...

competition, before switching to

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to play

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 ...

for the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels were an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria that competed in the Super Rugby competition. The Rebels made their debut in SANZAAR, SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. T ...

Early years

Cooper Vuna is of

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

n descent. He was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand, and grew up in Otahuhu with his family. He has three sisters and four brothers. He is the older brother of Joseph Vuna. Vuna played high school

until he was 15, switching to

after being scouted by the

. His junior club was the Otahuhu Leopards. And he represented the Auckland Lions in the Bartercard Cup and NSWRL Premier League.

Rugby league career

Vuna signed with the

and made his

first grade First grade (also 1st Grade or Grade 1) is the first year of formal or compulsory education. It is the first year of elementary school, and the first school year after kindergarten. Children in first grade are usually 6–7 years old. Examples ...

debut late in 2004, in Round 24 against the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

. Vuna went on to play five games for the club over the next three years before leaving, seeking regular game time. Vuna signed with the

in mid-2007, seeking to break into first grade. He was picked in the Knights' squad the week he was signed after the squad suffered several withdrawals. Vuna established himself in the Knights first grade squad, playing in over fifty matches for the club between 2007 and 2010. In Round 24, 2010 Vuna scored 4 tries against the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

equalling the Newcastle Knights' club record for most tries in a game.

Representative career

Vuna was selected in the

New Zealand national rugby league team The New Zealand national rugby league team () has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the Kiwi (bird), native bird of that name. The team' ...

' training squad in 2007 but did not make the final squad. Vuna was also named in the Kiwis' 2008 squad training for the

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but played in three matches for

instead. In October 2008 he was named in the final 24-man

squad. In 2011 Cooper was named in the initial 50-man squad for the Tongan Rugby Union Team for the Rugby World Cup.

Rugby union career

In May 2010, Vuna signed a two-year contract with the

. He played the Rebels' pre-season trials against

and

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; against the

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he ran on with former Wallabies Stirling Mortlock and

Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and Internationalism (politics), internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentiet ...

. He debuted in Super Rugby for the first round of the Rebels season against the Waratahs. He ended the season playing 14 games of the Super Rugby season

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and scored 4 tries. Vuna played his first game for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

9 June 2012, against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

in Brisbane. Vuna played 71 minutes of the Test, the first of a

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of three between Wallabies and the visiting Welshmen. Vuna was selected again for the second test, in Melbourne a week later. In August 2012, Vuna dislocated his shoulder while playing for the Endeavour Hills club. A week later he underwent surgery. According to a Wallabies spokesman, Vuna could expect to face a six-month recovery period. This could see him sidelined until February 2013. In May 2013, it was announced that Vuna would leave the Rebels at the end of the season to join Japanese Top League club Toshiba Brave Lupus. He joins head coach Damien Hill and fellow Rebels players James O'Connor, Gareth Delve,

Ged Robinson Ged Robinson (born 20 June 1983 in Wellington, New Zealand) is a rugby union footballer. His regular playing position is hooker. He formerly represented the Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby, and he formerly played 5 games for the and mostly on ...

, Nick Phipps, Nic Henderson, James King, Tim Davidson and

Richard Kingi Richard Kingi (born 17 March 1989 in Tauranga, New Zealand) is an Australian professional Rugby union footballer. While his usual position is half back, he often plays on the wing and sometimes at fullback. Career Brought up in Te Puke near th ...

on the list of departing Rebels at the end of 2013. His last game as a Rebels player was a home game against New Zealand franchise the Highlanders, a match that also turned out to be the last Rebels match for head coach Damien Hill and players James O'Connor, Gareth Delve,

, Nick Phipps and Nic Henderson. In front of over 12,000 spectators, the Rebels overcame a 24-point half-time deficit to achieve a remarkable 38–37 come-from-behind victory over the Highlanders, ending Vuna's tenure as a Rebels player on a winning note, with Vuna scoring two tries in the same match. On 2 March 2015, Vuna travelled to England to join

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

in the

with immediate effect from the 2015–16 season. Following his release from Worcester, Vuna signed for local rivals

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

for the 2018–19 season. On 26 June 2019, Vuna signed for Premiership rivals

on a two-year deal from the 2019–20 season.

Family

His father, John Vuna, represented

. He has a son called Lincoln Vuna

References

External links

2016 Worcester Warriors profileMelbourne Rebels profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vuna, Cooper 1987 births Living people 2019 Rugby World Cup players 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen ACS Tomitanii Constanța players Auckland rugby league team players Australia international rugby union players Australian rugby union players Bath Rugby players Central Coast Centurions players Cessnock Goannas players Expatriate rugby union players in Japan Expatriate rugby union players in Romania Melbourne Rebels players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in England New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Australia New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand sportspeople of Tongan descent New Zealand Warriors players Newcastle Falcons players Newcastle Knights players Otahuhu Leopards players People educated at Otahuhu College Rugby league players from Auckland Rugby league wingers Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Auckland Tamaki Titans players Tonga international rugby union players Tonga national rugby league team players Tongan expatriate rugby union players in Australia Tongan expatriate rugby union players in England Tongan rugby league players Tongan rugby union players Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo players