Joel Luani (born 16 February 1992) was a 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 ...

player who last played for the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...

in the

Intrust Super Premiership The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

. He played as a and previously played for the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...

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 ...

Background

Luani was born in

Sydney, New South Wales Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. He is of American Samoan and Tongan descent. He was educated at his father's alma mater

Newington College Newington College is a multi-campus Independent school, independent Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church Single-sex education, single-sex and Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primar ...

(2008–2010) and played in the 1st XV rugby union team for three years. In his final year of school, he was a member of Newington's

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

Championship-winning team and went on to represent the

Australian Schoolboys rugby union team The Australian Schoolboys & U18 rugby union team is the national team for schoolboy rugby union & U18 players in Australia. Considered to be the pinnacle of schoolboy & U18 rugby in Australia, the team plays in fixtures against other national r ...

. He played junior football for Five Dock before being signed by the

Playing career

Luani played for the Tigers'

NYC New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive wit ...

team in 2011 and 2012, playing second row in the 2012 premiership-winning team. Coach

Todd Payten Todd Payten (born 18 January 1979) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League (NRL) and former professional rugby league footballer. As a player he played ...

said, "Joel played in the back row, which was not his preferred position and not once did he complain. He just went out and did the job each week." On 29 July 2013, Luani re-signed with the Tigers on a 2-year contract. After being 18th man a number of times in the

2013 NRL season The 2013 NRL season was the 106th season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia. The National Rugby League's main competition, named the 2013 Telstra Premiership after major sponsors Telstra Corporation, was contested by sixt ...

, Luani made his

debut for the Tigers 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 ...

in round 22. He played 3 games in a period when

Robbie Farah Robert Peter Farah () (born 23 January 1984) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australian international, Lebanese international and captain of New South Wales Blues team, he has played th ...

was unavailable due to injury, scoring one try. At the end of the season, Luani was chosen to be a member of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

2013 World Cup squad. He made his international debut playing at hooker in the side that defeated the Cook Islands 32–20, in the country's first ever World Cup match. Luani made his debut for

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 ...

at the end of 2014. In 2015, he played halfback in a

Polynesian Cup The Polynesian Cup is a rugby league football test match played between Samoa and Tonga first played in 2010. The matches in 2015, 2016 and 2018 were played as double-headers with the Melanesian Cup. Results See also *Polynesia Cup – sim ...

against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

, and was described as one of, "the halves changing perceptions of

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

rugby league teams having an inability to produce quality playmakers." He represented Tonga again at the conclusion of the 2015 season in the Asia-Pacific Qualifier match against the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

for the

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

, but he played this game in his usual position of hooker, with usual hooker Pat Politoni starting at five-eighth. Luani didn't play in any first-grade games for the Tigers in

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 at the end of the season, was not re-signed by the club.

References

External links

2015 Wests Tigers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luani, Joel 1992 births Living people Australian people of American descent Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Balmain Ryde-Eastwood Tigers players People educated at Newington College Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Sydney Tonga national rugby league team players Tongan rugby league players United States national rugby league team players Wests Tigers NSW Cup players Wests Tigers players Footballers who switched code 21st-century Australian sportsmen