Joseph Malaki Tomane (born 11 February 1990) is an Australian 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 ...

footballer. He played inside centre for

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

in the first game of the 18/19

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

, and formerly played for the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inh ...

in the

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. He has been capped for 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 ...

Early life

Tomane is of Samoan descent. He was born in

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...

, New Zealand, but moved with his family to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia when he was three years old. In Brisbane, Tomane attended

Marsden State High School Marsden State High School (MSHS) is a public co-educational secondary school located in the Logan City suburb of Waterford West, Queensland, Australia. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment of 3,702 students and ...

and played rugby league alongside

Israel Folau Israel ‘Isileli Folau (; born 3 April 1989) is a professional dual-code rugby player who plays as a fullback for Japan Rugby League One club Urayasu D-Rocks. Born in Australia, he represents Tonga at international level after qualifying ...

Antonio Winterstein Antonio Winterstein (born 30 May 1988) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played for the North Queensland Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL. A Samoan international captain, he was a member of the Cowboys' 2015 NRL pre ...

and

Chris Sandow Chris Sandow (born 9 January 1989) is an Indigenous Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a goal-kicking or , he could also play as a . Background Sandow was born in Kingaroy, Queensland. Sandow grew up in Quee ...

until he moved to

Nudgee College St Joseph's Nudgee College (commonly referred to as Nudgee College or simply Nudgee) is an independent Catholic primary and secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in Boondall, a northern suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Th ...

for his senior year. At Nudgee, he played

alongside James O'Connor. In 2007, Tomane played for the

Australian Schoolboys The Australian Schoolboys refer to junior teams that represent Australia in various sports. The name is mainly used in rugby league, rugby union and baseball. Other popular team sports in Australia such as cricket, basketball, association footbal ...

, as did O'Connor.

Rugby league

In 2008, Tomane joined the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

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 ...

. In only his ninth NRL game on 7 June 2009, playing against the Brisbane Broncos, Tomane scored three tries and took on the goal-kicking duties for the night to achieve six goals from nine attempts to bring his total points tally for the night to 24 in the Storm's 48–4 win over the Broncos. Tomane signed with the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership, Australia's elite rugby league competition. Since 2008, the ...

on a two-year deal starting from 2010. He was also selected in the Samoan training squad in 2010. After his successful career in rugby union (see below), Tomane returned to his rugby league roots in mid-2023, to play for Brisbane-based Souths-Logan Magpies in the Queensland Rugby League.

Rugby union

In June 2011 Tomane signed a two-year deal with the

to play in the

competition. Tomane made his International debut playing against Scotland at Hunter Stadium in Newcastle on 5 June 2012. He had limited opportunities in the wet conditions but made a try saving tackle. An ankle injury sustained during training two days later ruled him out of the subsequent test series against Wales. On 5 July 2016, Tomane confirmed that he would be leaving the Brumbies for French club

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

at the end of the season. On 12 June 2018

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby () is one of the four professional provincial club rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the Leinster Branch, one of t ...

confirmed that they had signed Joe Tomane on a two-year deal. His contract was not renewed for the 2020/2021 season and Leinster announced that he would be released on 13 July 2020. On 1 October 2020, Tomane confirmed his move to Japan to join

Ricoh Black Rams Black Rams Tokyo (formerly Ricoh Black Rams) is a Japanese rugby union team in the Japan Rugby League One. Being ranked tenth meant that, in order to continue in the league, it had to defeat one of the top regional clubs in a play-off, which it ac ...

in the

Top League Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...

competition from the 2020-21 season. This was followed by several appearances for French team Biarritz in 2022.

Personal life

In March 2014 Tomane was baptised along with twenty others at the Life Unlimited Church in Charnwood. Tomane was baptised as a child but was not religious growing up. However, after he turned his career around Tomane became a devout

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. He now goes to church every week, prays before matches, has tattoos of his favourite bible verses, and pauses to thank God every time he scores a try. He also wants to start a Christian group for athletes in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. Tomane has nine tattoos, most in relation to his Christian faith or Samoan heritage. He also has three stars behind his ear, which are for daughter Starsha. His other favourite rite tattoos are the cross on his left hand and his favourite Bible verse written across his stomach –

Philippians The Epistle to the Philippians is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and Timothy is named with him as co-author or co-sender. The letter is addressed to the Christia ...

4:13 "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength".

Super Rugby statistics

Notes

References

External links

ARU ProfileBrumbies ProfileLeinster ProfilePro14 Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomane, Joe 1990 births Living people Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent Australian people of Cook Island descent Australian people of New Zealand descent Converts to Christianity Australian Christians Australian rugby union players Australian rugby league players ACT Brumbies players Canberra Vikings players Melbourne Storm players Gold Coast Titans players Australia international rugby union players Ipswich Jets players Rugby league centres Rugby union players from Palmerston North Rugby league wingers Rugby league fullbacks Rugby union wings Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Wellington City Barbarian F.C. players Montpellier Hérault Rugby players Australian expatriate rugby union players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Ireland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Sportspeople from Logan, Queensland Leinster Rugby players Black Rams Tokyo players Biarritz Olympique players People educated at St Joseph's College, Nudgee 2015 Rugby World Cup players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in France New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan Footballers who switched code 21st-century Australian sportsmen