Tulsen Paul Tollett (born 6 May 1973) is a television presenter and 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 who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A

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 ...

international representative utility back, he played in Australia for Sydney's

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 ...

and the Parramatta Eels clubs, before moving to England and playing for the London Broncos.

Background

Tollett was born in

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

, Sussex in the United Kingdom, but moved with his family to Australia as a youngster. His junior career was with Emu Plains JRLC prior to being signed by Penrith.

Rugby league career

Tollett played at the Penrith Panthers and the Parramatta Eels before joining the Broncos for the 1996 inaugural season of Super League I.Broncos' Tollett calls it a day
Wales Online, 30 November 2001 He played his junior football for Emu Plains. After a successful first season in England, he was selected for the

squad to tour Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand. Tollett's highlights with the Broncos include: *Playing in the side that beat top Australian side Canberra Raiders in Super League's World Club Championship series in 1997 (London Broncos chalked up a rare win by a Super League side against their Australasian Super League counterparts in that year's competition) *Being part of the first London Broncos side to reach a Rugby League

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

final, in 1999 against the Leeds Rhinos at WembleyInjury takes toll on Tollett
BBC Sport, 29 November 2001 *Being in the highest finishing London side (second, Super League 1997) in the club's ( Fulham, London Crusaders, Broncos) history to date

Rugby union career

Tollett also had spells in

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 ...

with English Premiership side Harlequins during 1997/98, as well as London Welsh in 1999/2000 during the Rugby League close season.

Media work

Tollett was forced to give up playing in 2001 due to a persistent shoulder injury.Tollett quits Broncos
BBC Sport, 29 November 2001 He then moved into the media and now presents sport on

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

in the UK and internationally. Previous to this he worked for

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

and ABC NewsRadio in Sydney and has also worked for BBC Radio 5 Live,

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

and Setanta Sports amongst others as a presenter, reporter or commentator, and worked as a pitchside reporter for TVH, the host broadcaster at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. In 2021, Tollett was a commentator for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's coverage of the 2020 Paralympics.

Qualifications

Tollett holds a Bachelor of Physical Education teaching degree, as well as a first dan karate black belt.

References

External links

London Broncos profile
*(archived by web.archive.org
Statistics: Tulsen Tollett
Rugby Premiership {{DEFAULTSORT:Tollett, Tulsen 1973 births Living people BBC sports presenters and reporters English male karateka English rugby league players English rugby union players English television presenters Great Britain national rugby league team players Harlequin F.C. players London Broncos players London Welsh RFC players Parramatta Eels players Penrith Panthers players Rugby league centres Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from East Sussex Rugby league wingers Rugby union players from East Sussex Sportspeople from Hastings