Joseph Mark Laifone Tuineau (born 18 August 1981) is a

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 ...

international

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 plays in the

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 ...

position for the

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

based

Pro D2 The Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was introduced in 2000. It ...

side,

Dax The DAX (''Deutscher Aktienindex'' (German stock index); ) is a stock market index consisting of the 40 major German blue chip companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It is a total return index. Prices are taken from the Xetra t ...

. Tuineau also represents

at international level. Tuineau is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player born in Fiji and raised in

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 ...

. His partner is

Southern Steel Southern Steel may refer to: * Southern Steel (netball) Southern Steel are a netball in New Zealand, New Zealand netball team based in Invercargill. Between 2008 ANZ Championship season, 2008 and 2016 ANZ Championship season, 2016, they played ...

and

Silver Ferns The New Zealand national netball team, commonly known as the Silver Ferns ( or ), represent Netball New Zealand in international netball tournaments such as the Netball World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, the Taini Jamison Trophy, the Constell ...

goal shoot

Daneka Wipiiti Daneka Wipiiti (born 8 December 1982 in Hamilton, New Zealand) is a former New Zealand international netball player who played for the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns, and the Southern Steel in the ANZ Championship. Wipiiti ...

Rugby career

Provincial Rugby

Tuineau was a rugby and track star at King's College in Auckland but dropped the sport for several years to pursue a career in

. He returned to

in mid-2008, and two days after arriving he represented Woodlands in the Galbraith Shield final. He trained heavily to lose excess weight and gain fitness, and played most of the 2008 season with the Southland Development team before getting into late season games off the bench in the

Air New Zealand Cup An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

for Southland. In 2009 he became a regular starter with the

Stags A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) an ...

in the

, appearing in all but one of the team's 14 games. He was a key figure in Southland's

Ranfurly Shield The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the Log o' Wood, is a trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First played for in 1904, the Shield is based on a challenge system. The holding union must defend the shield in challenge ...

win against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

, ending the fifty-year drought for the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. He finished the

2009 Air New Zealand Cup The 2009 Air New Zealand Cup was the 33rd provincial rugby union competition, the fourth since the competition's reconstruction in 2006, involving the top 14 provincial unions in New Zealand. It ran for 15 weeks from 30 July to 7 November. It was ...

with a team high four tries and was selected for the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Highlanders squad. He continued as a starter for Southland during their extended defence of the Ranfurly Shield in the

2010 ITM Cup The 2010 ITM Cup season was the fifth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on July 29, when Taranaki hosted Northland. It involved the top fourteen rugby union ...

. He appeared in the first 5 matches of the

2011 ITM Cup The 2011 ITM Cup season was the sixth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on July 14, when Otago (National Provincial Championship), Otago hosted North Harbour ...

, helping the province to another Ranfurly Shield triumph, before leaving to join the Tongan national side in preparation for the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

Super Rugby

Tuineau's strong showings with Southland earned him a contract with the Highlanders for the

2010 Super 14 season The 2010 Super 14 season kicked off in February 2010 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 29 May. The 2010 season was the fifth and last season of the expanded Super Rugby, Super 14 format. The schedule, which covers 3� ...

. He didn't make his debut until the team's 6th match of the season, but an injury to starting lock

Tom Donnelly Thomas Mathew Donnelly (born 1 October 1981) is a former rugby union player who played for Montpellier in the Top 14. He also made 15 appearances for the All Blacks since 2009 and played for Otago Rugby Football Union. He moved into a coaching ...

saw an increase in playing time, and he appeared as a substitute in 7 of the final 8 games of the year. Although he was again included in the Highlanders squad for the

2011 Super Rugby season The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16t ...

, he found himself on the fringes of the squad and didn't feature in any matches over the course of the season.

International Play

In the leadup to the

, Tuineau declared his intention to represent

, and made his debut against

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

on 2 July 2011.

Football career

Tuineau first played football in New Zealand for South Auckland Raiders and then attended

Southeast Missouri State University Southeast Missouri State University (Southeast or SEMO) is a public university in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In addition to the main campus, the university has four regional campuses offering full degree programs and a secondary campus housing t ...

where he played

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

. When Tuineau played football he weighed . He played four seasons for the Redhawks recording 61 catches for 772 yards, averaging 12.7 yards per catch with one

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

. After going undrafted in the 2008 National Football League draft Tuineau trained with the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

and the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

but failed to receive a

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

contract. After weighing up his options in 2008 he returned to

to pursue a

career and signed a two-year deal Southland.

References

External links

Southeast Missouri State University

highlanders-rugby.co.nz
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuineau, Joe 1981 births Tonga international rugby union players Living people Rugby union locks New Zealand rugby union players Fijian rugby union players Rugby union players from Suva Fijian emigrants to New Zealand Highlanders (rugby union) players Southland rugby union players Montpellier Hérault Rugby players Lyon OU Rugby players US Dax players New Zealand sportspeople of Tongan descent New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in France 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2015 Rugby World Cup players People educated at King's College, Auckland