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

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

for

Japan Rugby League One Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, b ...

club

Kubota Spears Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay (commonly known as the Kubota Spears) is a Japanese rugby union team based in Funabashi, Chiba participating in the Japan Rugby League One. The team rebranded as Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay ahead of the r ...

. Born in Tonga, he represents

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

at international level after qualifying on residency grounds.

Club career

Helu was born in Tonga, attended St Thomas of Canterbury College, Christchurch, New Zealand, and then university in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. After graduating from university he signed up to play Top League rugby with

Yamaha Júbilo Shizuoka Blue Revs (formerly the Yamaha Júbilo) are a rugby union team based in Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan. The team came second behind Toshiba Brave Lupus in the second season of Japanese rugby's Top League (2004–05). They were coached by former ...

in 2014. His appearances were sparse in his first two seasons with Yamaha, but in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

he began to be much more of a regular in the side.

International career

After only 13 Top League appearances for Yamaha Júbilo, which included 3 starts, Helu received his first call-up to his adopted country, Japan's senior squad ahead of the

2016 end-of-year rugby union internationals The 2016 end-of-year rugby union internationals, also known as the ''2016 Autumn Internationals'' in the Northern Hemisphere, were a series of international rugby union matches predominantly played between the visiting Southern Hemisphere countries ...

. He debuted as a second-half replacement in new head coach,

Jamie Joseph James Whitinui Joseph (born 21 November 1969) is a New Zealand-born Japanese former rugby union player and current rugby union coach. A flanker, Joseph represented Otago at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, ...

's first game, a 54–20 loss at home to .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Helu, Uwe 1990 births Living people Japanese rugby union players Tongan rugby union players Japan international rugby union players Rugby union locks Rugby union flankers Shizuoka Blue Revs players Takushoku University alumni Sportspeople from Nagano Prefecture People educated at St Thomas of Canterbury College Tongan expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Sunwolves players Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay players Naturalized citizens of Japan Naturalised rugby union players Tongan expatriate rugby union players in Japan 2019 Rugby World Cup players Urayasu D-Rocks players