Taniela Tupou is built like a one-man lunar eclipse. He’s also far more than 135kg of scrum power to block out the French front-row when you discover what drives him.
Those on-field tears on national TV were pure emotion when he gave a heartfelt thank you to his mum after winning the Super Rugby AU final at Suncorp Stadium in May.
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“This is for you mum,” he said with guest Stan Sport commentator Sonny Bill Williams offering a comforting arm around the shoulders.
The Wallabies’ prop plays for his family. He plans to build that new home in Tonga for his mother Loisi after Cyclone Gita levelled the house where he grew up.
Tupou knew she’d be watching the final and what that victory meant with the Queensland Reds just triggered him.
In the dressing room, away from the cameras, the scene magnified.
“In the changing room, I watched a video from my brother recording my mum while I was mentioning her in the TV interview,” Tupou said.
“She was crying, they were all crying. It was just special.
“You know, it was Mother’s Day in Tonga the next day. What a Mother’s Day present.”
Tupou still vividly remembers the tears he shed in February, 2018 when worried about his family’s safety when Cyclone Gita ripped through his tiny village outside the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa.
Tupou and brother Criff flew home from Brisbane to help with the rebuild. A chunk of his contract money helped that project and more is earmarked for a grander home one day.
“It was scary. Our house was gone before the cyclone even hit Tonga because that’s how strong the winds were,” Tupou said.
“My mum, the family, ran next door and that was smashed too.
“I just cried when I found out and I had to miss (Queensland) training the next day.
“My brother Criff and I flew home, with neighbours. We helped build a house for now from timbers and corrugated iron. It’s temporary. I want to build her a proper one.”
Tupou hasn’t seen his mum and wider family since late 2019 which is a spin-off to COVID-19 you don’t always hear about.
“The borders have either been closed or there’s not been the time to go into quarantine and come back because of rugby. That’s why Facebook, Facetime, Skype, everything is so important to keep in contact,” he said.
Being part of the Reds and Wallabies has kept a big, supportive rugby family around him which has enabled his rugby to get better and better.
Historically, tighthead props hit their peak years at ages older than Tupou, but he has not had your regulation education.
At 25, he already has the experience of 25 Tests behind him as well as six years and more than 70 matches of Super Rugby.
Former Wallabies prop Al Baxter hadn’t played his first Test at the same age.
What does “experience” mean as a prop? Well, in Tupou’s early trial for the Reds against the Crusaders at Ballymore in 2016, he was twisted and out-thought scrum after scrum by 2015 World Cup-winner Joe Moody. It was a clear “master v apprentice” match-up. Fast forward to 2020 and Tupou was causing the All Black star problems in the two Tests they started against each other.
More than many backs over the past decade, ‘Tongan Thor’ has almost had a no-hurry classification.
He has had a string of caring coaches who have challenged him but not rushed him if you look at Nick Stiles, Brad Thorn, scrum doctor Cameron Lillicrap and Michael Cheika.
It takes a lot to get Thorn to go over-the-top about a player but he does with Tupou.
“What he does on the field is freakish at times for someone his size,” Thorn said.
It may now be Wallabies boss Dave Rennie who reaps the biggest dividend at Test level.
He’s already had one huge dividend.
No-one will forget how Tupou transformed last season’s Bledisloe Cup thriller at Suncorp Stadium with one of the great cameos by a prop from the bench.
The Wallabies were down 15-11 when he came on with just under 30 minutes to play.
He quickly earned a scrum penalty. Three points.
Then, with time running out he made two huge charges through the defence before finishing the same raid with a third effort for a try. Wallabies win 24-22.
Tupou has played 25 Tests and they have been against 11 different countries. That’s a terrific variety of scrummaging styles and props to learn from in every engagement.
Playing Les Bleus is a missing link which makes this eToro France Series so important because of the reputation of French scrummaging.
“Obviously, they are very good and have been winning Tests. For me to see what they are like will be a good thing,” Tupou said.
In this era of baton-change props in just about every match, Tupou is an exception with his huge Super Rugby workload. He played strongly to the full 80 six times in the 14 games he played for the Reds this season.
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In most of them, he had a huge influence whether it was his leg-driving authority at scrum-time to earn penalties or pumping those palm trunk legs of his to ignite a skittling run.
Against the Western Force in Perth in April, his bumping, runaway rhino impression speared him through five sets of flapping arms for his try.
You get that plus hands so deft he could deliver a behind-the back pass to flanker Fraser McReight in the same game.
If Rennie has a conundrum it is how best to use him … Test starter or bench weapon?
“Last year, he and Al (Alaalatoa) shared the role with three starts each,” Rennie said.
“The quality of Taniela off the bench, you look at the Bledisloe in Brisbane. His scrummaging and ball-carries helped us finish over the top.
“He’s played a phenomenal amount of minutes for the Reds. He won’t have that load in our group.
“What we want is a massive workrate. Whether it’s 50 or 30 minutes, what we want is plenty of carries, cleans and tackles.”
Either way, you are going to see plenty of Taniela Tupou monstering opposition sides in 2021.
