Kuripitone "Tony" Tatupu is a 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. He played as a and in the and represented both

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 ...

and

Western 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, inhabit ...

. Tatupu is the uncle of the rugby league footballer;

Matthew Wright Matt or Matthew Wright may refer to: Sports * Matthew Wright (basketball) (born 1991), Filipino-Canadian basketball player * Matthew Wright (Australian footballer) (born 1989), Australian rules footballer * Matthew Wright (rugby league) (born 1991) ...

Playing career

Tatupu first played for the

Mt Albert Lions The Mount Albert Lions are a rugby league club based in Mount Albert, New Zealand. The Lions home ground is at Fowlds Park. Their patron is the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark. In 2008 and 2009 Auckland Rugby League season, 2009 ...

in the Auckland competition before joining the

North Harbour Sea Eagles The North Harbour Sea Eagles were a New Zealand rugby league club that represented the North Shore and Rodney District in the Lion Red Cup from 1994 to 1996. For the first two seasons they were coached by Graeme Norton. There two main feeder cl ...

for the 1994

Lion Red Cup The Lion Red Cup was a New Zealand domestic rugby league competition that ran from 1994 to 1996 sponsored by brewers Lion Nathan. It was created due to the increase in public awareness of domestic rugby league due to the Auckland Warriors being a ...

season. Between 1991 and 1993 he played 12 games for

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 ...

. From there he joined 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 ...

for their inaugural season in the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

competition. Along with Nigel Vagana he joined 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 ...

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 ...

competition in 1997 before returning to the Warriors for another two seasons. In 2000 he returned to England to finish his career at the

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home fixtures at the DIY Kitchen Stadium, Belle Vue and currently compete in the Super League, the top tier of the British rugby le ...

. He stayed with the club during a time of financial turbulence mid-way through the 2000 season which saw all players aged over 24 released and then re-signed on limited wages.

Representative career

Tatupu represented the Kiwis tour of PNG 1994 in 4 tour matches + was capped with 4 Official test matches - Samoa at two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, and two

Pacific Cup The Pacific Cup was a rugby league football competition, inaugurated in 1974, as a development competition for national teams from the Pacific region outside of Australia and New Zealand. The tournament ceased in 2009. In 2019, a similar com ...

s. He was named in the 1992 Pacific Cups team of the tournament.

Later years

He now serves as a New Zealand Police officer and represented the New Zealand Police at the inaugural Police World Cup. Tatupu's son Shem has been signed by

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL) club Hawthorn as an international rookie.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatupu, Tony 1969 births Living people 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen Auckland rugby league team players Mount Albert Lions players New Zealand expatriate rugby league players in England New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand police officers New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent New Zealand Warriors players North Harbour rugby league team players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from the Auckland Region Rugby league second-rows Samoa national rugby league team players Wakefield Trinity players Warrington Wolves players