Jimmy Tupou (born 8 August 1992) is a

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 ...

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

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

or loose forward for the Counties Manukau Steelers in New Zealand's domestic

Mitre 10 Cup The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in traditional Christianity. Mi ...

and the in the international

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 ...

competition.

Early career

Born in Auckland, Tupou attended

Pukekohe High School Pukekohe High School is a high school in Pukekohe in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Enrolment As of , Pukekohe High School has a roll of students, of which (%) identify as Māori. As of , the school has an Equity Index of , placing it ...

where he initially 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 ...

before finally trying his hand at union in his senior year. He was quickly fast-tracked into the Counties Manukau Under-18 side and later played a key role in helping his club side, Patumahoe lift the McNamara Cup, the senior premier club title in Counties Manukau, in 2012.

Senior career

Coming off the back of impressive performances for New Zealand at Under-20 level, Tupou made the Counties Manukau squad for the

2012 ITM Cup 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. Despite having just turned 20 before the tournament started, he instantly became a regular starter for the Steelers, playing nine times and scoring one try as the men from Pukekohe lifted the Championship trophy and earned promotion to the Premiership for 2013. He continued to excel at Premiership level, playing nine times in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and later being named co-captain for the 2016 season. Being one of the senior players in an inexperienced line up he performed admirably, starting 10 of the Steelers' 11 games during a campaign which took them to the Premiership semi-finals before they succumbed to eventual winners .

Super Rugby

Strong performances in his debut season at provincial level with Counties Manukau saw him named in the squad ahead of the

2013 Super Rugby season The 2013 Super Rugby season was the third season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The tournament was won by the Chiefs, who defeated the Canberra-based Brumbi ...

. In a star-studded squad featuring the likes of

Richie McCaw Richard Hugh McCaw (born 31 December 1980) is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He captain (sports), captained the New Zealand national rugby union team, New Zealand national team, the All Blacks, in 110 out of his 148 t ...

and

Kieran Read Kieran James Read (born 26 October 1985) is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He played as a number 8 and is a former captain of the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks. Read played for New Zealand from 2008 to 2019. He is one of ...

in the loose forward department, Tupou's rookie season at Super Rugby level was limited to just two substitute appearances. However, over the following three seasons spent in Canterbury, he became a regular in the 23 man squad. With his appearances generally restricted to that of a second-half substitute, he turned out 12, 11 and 12 times across the

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

seasons. Looking for more game time, he agreed a move north to join the

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 ...

-based ahead of the

2017 Super Rugby season The 2017 Super Rugby season was the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the second season featuring an expanded ...

International

Tupou was a member of the New Zealand Under 20 team that finished as runner-up in the

2012 IRB Junior World Championship The 2012 IRB Junior World Championship was the fifth IRB Junior World Championship, an annual international rugby union competition for Under-20 national teams. This competition replaced the now defunct Under 19 and Under 21 world championship ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. He scored one try in four appearances at the tournament.

Career honours

Counties Manukau * ITM Cup Championship -

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Super Rugby statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tupou, Jimmy 1992 births New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent Rugby union flankers Rugby union locks Crusaders (rugby union) players Counties Manukau rugby union players Rugby union players from Auckland Living people People educated at Pukekohe High School Blues (Super Rugby) players Urayasu D-Rocks players Chiefs (Super Rugby) players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan