Michael Savea Alaalatoa (born 28 August 1991) is a 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 ...

player who plays as a

prop A prop, formally known as a (theatrical) property, is an object actors use on stage or screen during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct ...

for

United Rugby Championship 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 ...

club

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 ...

. Born in Australia, he represents

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 ...

at international level after qualifying on ancestry grounds.

Early life

Born into a rugby household where father Vili was a member of the squad for the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup () was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Six Nations Championship, Five Na ...

, Alaalatoa was quickly introduced into the sporting world and played rugby, volleyball and cricket in his childhood.

Club career

Rugby was where he excelled and he played three years in the

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 ...

First XV. He made his way through the ranks in the

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Shute Shield The Shute Shield, currently known as the Charter Hall Shute Shield, is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team fro ...

, initially with Southern Districts and later West Harbour. Some impressive performances at that level saw him become a regular member of the Waratahs wider training squad in 2014. An injury to regular front-rower

Paddy Ryan Patrick Ryan (15 March 1851 – 14 December 1900) was an Irish American boxer, and became the bare-knuckle American heavyweight champion on 30 May 1880, after he won the title from Joe Goss. He retained the title until losing it to the excep ...

saw Alaalatoa called up to the Waratahs first team for the final round of league matches in the

2014 Super Rugby season The 2014 Super Rugby season is the fourth season of the 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as Asteron Life Super Rugby ...

. He made his debut as a second-half replacement in the Waratahs 34–3 victory over the in

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 ...

. Leading up to the 2015

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Teknologi Mara, a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia * Institute for Information, Tel ...

Alaalatoa moved to New Zealand and signed to play for where he had a solid season that earned him a 2016

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 ...

contract with the It was announced on 12 April 2021 that Alaalatoa would be moving to

to play Pro 14 and European Cup rugby starting in the 2021/22 season.

International career

Alaalatoa was a member of the Samoa Under 20 side that competed in the

2011 IRB Junior World Championship The 2011 IRB Junior World Championship was the fourth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams, this competition replaced the now defunct under 19 and under 21 world championships. The event was organised by rugby' ...

. Alaalatoa was eligible to play international rugby for Samoa, Australia through birth and New Zealand through residency. On 23 August 2019, he was named in Samoa's 34-man training squad for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

, before being named in the final 31 on 31 August.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alaalatoa, Michael 1991 births Living people People educated at Newington College Australian rugby union players Rugby union props Sportsmen from New South Wales New South Wales Waratahs players New South Wales Country Eagles players Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent Rugby union players from Sydney Manawatu rugby union players Crusaders (rugby union) players Samoa international rugby union players Moana Pasifika players Leinster Rugby players 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players West Harbour RFC players ASM Clermont Auvergne players 21st-century Australian sportsmen