Taniela "Tongan Thor" Tupou Signs with Queensland REDS

[IKALETAHI]

Huge potential who has opted to leave NZ and sign with the Reds.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/10490657/Tongan-Thor-Taniela-Tupou-signs-with-Reds

Few clips for those who havnt seen Taniela play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G31DTga_3fI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcSvt99LUOQ

 

[nickdnz]

Good, glad he's gone. Seemed like a pretty entitled kid.

Haven't heard anything about his scrummaging and I doubt he'll be able to be anywhere near as devastating with ball in hand against Super Rugby sides.

 

[RoosTah]

It'll be at least 3 years before he's of a decent enough Super Rugby standard for us to know if it'll be worth it, but he definitely has a bit of pace for a big man.

 

[nickdnz]

It'll be at least 3 years before he's of a decent enough Super Rugby standard for us to know if it'll be worth it, but he definitely has a bit of pace for a big man.

Funny, because he's signed for 2 years :lol:.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

I took great pleasure in reading the comments on stuff.co.nz

funny now he's turned his back on NZ, he will apparently never amount to anything, not worthy of the black jersey etc.

 

[nickdnz]

To be fair - I don't think he is anywhere near good enough to be an All Black. I think if you'd listened to some of the comments he made to the media, particularly in how he should have been in the NZ schools team, it's not surprising people aren't sad over him going...

Must be fun for you reading NZ comments on Fairfax media, Australian's equivalent comments sections are generally so unbiased and even minded...

Also scrolling down the section there seems to be plenty of 'good luck to him' comments...

 

[RoosTah]

I took great pleasure in reading the comments on stuff.co.nz

funny now he's turned his back on NZ, he will apparently never amount to anything, not worthy of the black jersey etc.

To be fair it's always that way though when people turn their back on a country. The South Africans lost their s#!t when Rathbone decided to play for Australia, and people in NSW are still pi##ed that GI plays for the Maroons.

 

[William18]

The whole thing just seems ridiculous to me. He wants to play for Australia because they had some Tongan players. Why doesn't he actually play for Tonga? There are lots of young prodigies and some amount to something and others don't. There is no real way of knowing. In our rugby system there is no such thing as preferential treatment. You don't get a Super Rugby deal out of school - you have to go up the pyramid. I guess Australia gave him more security in that regard. He is quick and big which are rare qualities to put together. You need to be better than that for international rugby. School rugby in New Zealand isn't really that much of a high standard. There are some future All Blacks out there playing but there are also some players who will probably end up playing for the Howick 2nd XV.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

To be fair - I don't think he is anywhere near good enough to be an All Black. I think if you'd listened to some of the comments he made to the media, particularly in how he should have been in the NZ schools team, it's not surprising people aren't sad over him going...

Must be fun for you reading NZ comments on Fairfax media, Australian's equivalent comments sections are generally so unbiased and even minded...

Also scrolling down the section there seems to be plenty of 'good luck to him' comments...

To be fair it's always that way though when people turn their back on a country. The South Africans lost their s#!t when Rathbone decided to play for Australia, and people in NSW are still pi##ed that GI plays for the Maroons.

fair enough it's not everyone, just a select few who see it as a slap in the face, majority of people take it on face value.

 

[Peat]

He doesn't want to play for Tonga cos he doesn't want to lose most of his meaningful international games while making not much money. Understandable if crappy.

I don't think I've ever really heard of a kid expecting this much straight outta school. Welcome to an ugly new frontier. I gotta say, out of all the kids in football who started demanding big things early, there seems to be a very high failure rate. Seems like it's often a symptom of a bad attitude.

 

[RoosTah]

He doesn't want to play for Tonga cos he doesn't want to lose most of his meaningful international games while making not much money. Understandable if crappy.

I don't think I've ever really heard of a kid expecting this much straight outta school. Welcome to an ugly new frontier. I gotta say, out of all the kids in football who started demanding big things early, there seems to be a very high failure rate. Seems like it's often a symptom of a bad attitude.

Not overly surprising... Tonga is a country with a population of that could fit into the MCG (about 100k) so it's not exactly a huge economic opportunity.