Manoa Thompson (born 11 June 1968) is a Fijian former professional

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 ...

footballer. Primarily playing as a , he played his first grade career with the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) is an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as the club is commonly ...

, and the

Auckland 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 ...

in the

NSWRL The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission.It was registered on 21 ...

ARL ARL may refer to: Military * A US Navy hull classification symbol: Landing craft repair ship (ARL) * Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK * United States Army Research Laboratory * ARL 44, a WWII French tank Organizations * Aero Research Limited, ...

competition, as well as playing in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

for the

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

. He represented the Fijian national team. Thompson is the father of former professional

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 ...

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a 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 Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

, and

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

player,

Jarryd Hayne Jarryd Lee Hayne (born 1988) is an Australian semi-professional rugby league footballer who plays for Wentworthville Magpies in the Ron Massey Cup. He briefly moved to the US to play the running back position for San Francisco 49ers in the 2 ...

Early years

Thompson was born in Fiji to a Fijian mother, Elenoa Tokalautawa, and an Australian father, and moved to Australia when he was 11. He was adopted by his mother's younger sister, Ana Waqanibaravi Thompson. He played his junior football with the Alexandria Rovers.''Rugby League Week'', 10 September 2015, p.45 Thompson also played

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 ...

and toured Japan with a New South Wales schoolboys side that included

Graham Mackay Graham Mackay (born 12 October 1968) is a former international and state representative rugby league footballer whose club career spanned ten Australian and English clubs, including Western Suburbs, Penrith Panthers, South Queensland Crushers ...

and Scott Gourley.

Playing career

Thompson joined the

, where he played in their champion under-21 side before playing in their under-23 side. He made his first grade début for Souths in round 11 of the 1989 season. Thompson went on to play 61 first grade games for Souths between 1989 and 1993. He spent

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

with the

, playing in only seven matches after having knee and ankle surgery during the off season. In

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

he was part of the inaugural squad for the new

franchise and played in the centres for the Warriors in their first ever competition game, a 25–22 loss to 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 ...

in front of 29,220 fans at the Ericsson Stadium 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 ...

. However, he again only played in seven matches and was not retained for the 1996 season. In November 1995 Thompson signed with English club

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

and played for the club during 1996's inaugural

Super League I The year 1996's Stones Bitter Super League I was the official name for the 102nd season of top-level rugby league football, and the first year of Europe's new championship: Super League. It is also the first season of rugby league to be played ...

. He left Warrington in February 1996 after failing to settle in Britain. Thompson represented

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 ...

in 1996. His only appearance saw a 72–4 loss to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

at the

Prince Charles Park King Charles Park, historically also known as Prince Charles Park, is a stadium in Nadi, Fiji. The stadium has a nominal capacity of 18,000 people. It currently hosts rugby union matches, football (soccer) matches, and special events. The ven ...

Nadi Nadi (, ) is the second-largest city in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 59,707 at the most recent census, in 2017. Nadi is multiracial with many of its inhabitants Asians, India ...

, the score being the record for the largest test win by the Lions. After returning from England, Thompson trialed with the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugb ...

before signing with the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

. However he spent the season in reserve grade and returned to South Sydney during the off season. After not securing a contract, Thompson moved to France and played for AS Saint Estève before spending a year in rugby union, playing for

RC Narbonne Racing Club de Narbonne Méditerannée (also known as RCNM) is a French rugby union club that play in the third-level Nationale. They are based in Narbonne in the Aude '' département'' of Occitania. They were founded in 1907. They play at P ...

alongside David Knox. Thompson then returned to league, spending a season with

AS Carcassonne Association Sportive of Carcassonne are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Carcassonne in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie in the south of France. They play in the French Super XIII and are one of th ...

before retiring.

Later years

In 2007 he was working as a delivery driver. He is still involved in rugby league, sitting on the Australian Fiji rugby league board and helping to coach that organisation's youth sides.

References

External links

South Sydney Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Manoa 1968 births Living people AS Carcassonne players AS Saint Estève players Fijian emigrants to Australia Fijian people of Australian descent Fijian rugby league players Australian people of I-Taukei Fijian descent Fiji national rugby league team players New Zealand Warriors players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Suva South Sydney Rabbitohs players Warrington Wolves players Western Suburbs Magpies players