Late bloomer Galu Taufale loving his rugby

Above: Galu Taufale beats the tackle of Ola Va’ai with Greg Foe in support in Poneke’s 30-30 Jimmy Grbich Shield draw with Oriental-Rongotai earlier this season. Photo by Andy McArthur. 

Galu Taufale was planning on hanging up his boots at the end of last season.

“Last year was going to my last year playing club rugby and I was going to look into becoming a firefighter,” he revealed. “But I was lucky enough to make the Jubilee Cup with Poneke and then make the Wellington Lions and then things changed.”

Last month Taufale’s career received a further boost when he made his international debut for Samoa.

He debuted at openside flanker in Samoa’s 17-19 defeat to Wales in Apia on 23 June and played their again in their 26-30 loss to Tonga in Nuku A’lofa on 1 July. Last Saturday he came off the bench late in the match in Samoa’s 16-38 defeat to Fiji at Apia.

Now the 30-year-old Taufale who has played well over 150 Premier club rugby matches for Johnsonville, the Wests Roosters and now Poneke has got no plans to hang up his boots in the near future.

“I’ll definitely keep playing, after playing provincial rugby and now for Samoa. I’m keen to keep playing as much as I can and hopefully make Samoa again and make that World Cup squad in a couple of years should they qualify.”

Born in Samoa and raised in Wellington’s northern suburbs, Taufale played his junior rugby for Johnsonville, went to Newlands College and returned to Johnsonville to start his senior career in their Colts and Premier teams. He then moved up the road to the Wests Roosters for four seasons before heading to Poneke in 2012 where he has been ever since.

“Last year was probably a highlight for me in club rugby. I have been playing Premier club rugby for 10 years now and last year I was finally able to play my first Jubilee Cup game when Poneke made the top eight again.

“I am probably the most capped Hardham Cup player running around!”

Taufale was off the plane and straight back into Wellington Lions wider squad and Poneke training this week, after spending the last five weeks with Samoa, who played Tests against the All Blacks and Wales, before meeting Tonga and Fiji in the Pacific Nations Cup.

“Being part of the environment and playing my first Test against Wales was unbelievable,” he said.

He marked another former player, the Tongan Torpedo Nili Latu, against Tonga. “The Test against Tonga was really physical, it was one of the hardest games I’ve played.”

Other former Wellington club rugby players in the recent Samoan squad were Northern United loose forward Faifili Levave , Norths outside back Alapati Leiua, Marist St Pat’s midfielder Rey Lee-Lo, Oriental-Rongotai flanker Jack Lam and Ories hooker Manu Leiataua.

Taufale’s international call-up by coach Alama Ieremia, himself a former Wests Roosters player, wasn’t entirely unexpected.

“The coach gave me a bit of a heads-up that I might be included in the squad, depending on availabilities of other players. He gave me the call a couple of weeks later. Initially it was just to go to Auckland, and then they named another squad to go to Samoa, then lucky enough I was chosen to be part of that.”

A quick glance at Taufale’s playing record on this website shows he’s been predominantly a 6 or an 8, so the move to openside is clearly a positive one. “I haven’t played openside since I was about 24. I played there quite a bit for the Wellington Lions last year, covering 6 and 7 and a bit of 8, so I’m quite familiar playing there and fit into that role quite well with the Samoan squad. Jack Lam [injured] helped me out at training as well, with positional play and things like that.”

This coming Saturday Poneke hosts Johnsonville at Kilbirnie Park in round 7 of 10 of the Hardham Cup. Heading into this weekend, Johnsonville and the Upper Hutt Rams are the two frontrunners on 27 points and Poneke are third on 19.

It’s a given that Taufale will be giving it his all to try and help his current club beat his former one and close the gap on the Hardham Cup leaders.