Taniela Lasalo is an Australian 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 who plays as a forward or as a for the

Hills District Bulls The Hills District Bulls is an Australian rugby league football club. It plays in the Parramatta District junior league based in at Crestwood Oval. They have played in the Parramatta District since 1964. They field teams in all age groups in ...

in the

Ron Massey Cup The Ron Massey Cup (formerly known as the Bundaberg Red Cup and Jim Beam Cup) is a semi-professional development level rugby league competition in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, run jointly by the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) and the ...

Background

He is of Tongan descent.

Playing career

2009–14: Career at Parramatta

Lasalo was named the Eels Toyota Cup captain for the 2009 season. He also made his

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 ...

(NRL) debut against the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Sutherland Shire of Southern Sydney, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. Cronulla compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugb ...

in round 11 2009. In the

2010 NRL season The 2010 NRL season was the 103rd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the thirteenth run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The season commenced on 12 March and ended with the grand final, played on 3 ...

, Lasalo made 2 appearances for Parramatta. Lasalo played every game in the

2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The ...

for the Eels as the club narrowly avoided the wooden spoon, as well as re-signing with Parramatta until 2013. Lasalo made 12 appearances for Parramatta in the

2012 NRL season The 2012 NRL season was the 105th season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the first run by the newly formed Australian Rugby League Commission. The main competition, called the 2012 NRL Telstra Premiership due to spon ...

as the club finished last for the first time since 1972. In the 2013 pre-season, Lasalo injured his arm and was ruled out indefinitely for 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 ...

. Due to his injury, Lasalo missed the entire season. In round 8, 2014 he made his NRL return on the bench for Parramatta against

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

. On 24 September 2017, Lasalo scored a try in Wentworthville's 38–4 victory over

Auburn Warriors The Auburn Warriors Rugby League Football Club were an Australian rugby league football club based in Auburn, New South Wales formed in 1953. They played in the NSW Ron Massey Cup competition and in Sydney's A-Grade competitions. 2017 In The 2 ...

in the 2017

grand final. In 2018, Lasalo joined the Guildford Owls. In 2021, he joined Hills District in the Ron Massey Cup. Lasalo scored a try for Hill District in their 2022 Ron Massey Cup grand final victory over

Glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

Representative career

Lasalo was named in the Tongan squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.

References

External links

Parramatta Eels profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lasalo, Taniela 1989 births Living people Australian rugby league players Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Tonga national rugby league team players Tongan rugby league players Parramatta Eels players Rugby league second-rows Rugby league players from Sydney Wentworthville Magpies players 21st-century Australian sportsmen