Tawa's Tolu Fahamokioa making his mark in ITM Cup rugby

Above: Tolu Fahamokioa takes on Manawatu's Chris Eves in a recent pre-season match at the Hutt Recreation Ground. The two should meet again on Friday night when the Ricoh Wellington Lions host the Turbos at Westpac Stadium.

Patience, humility and a positive attitude mark Tawa and Ricoh Wellington Lions loosehead prop Tolu Fahamokioa out for a bright future in the game.

In the current climate of players arriving at the ITM Cup having played a steady diet of representative age-group rugby Fahamokioa is one of the players making their marks after serving their apprenticeships in club rugby - and he's grasping both opportunities with both hands.

On Friday night, he starts for the Ricoh Wellington Lions against the Manawatu Turbos at loosehead prop, on the other side of the scrum to his Tawa teammate Taniela Koroi.

"I grew up watching this team, watching and supporting great players wear the Wellington Lions jersey," said Fahamokioa , "I'm really happy I've got a chance to play for them as well, to put on the same jersey that they did is special."

The Lyndhurst Park Lynchpin, as humble off the field as hard working as he is on it, has spent the past four years playing for the Tawa Premiers, having missed just two matches for the Tawa Wolfpack in the past two seasons and in 2013 having helped Tawa win more silverware than even his powerful 115 kg, 1.84m frame could heave up to the clubrooms on its own.

Needless to say, winning the Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup double in the same season last year is a career highlight thus far.

"Winning the Jubilee Cup last year was unreal. I still can't forget that day, it was a special moment."

Going about his work on the field with a smile on his face and a committed attitude, the popular Fahamokioa has been an impressive performer for Tawa since joining the club after leaving school at Wellington College at the end of 2009.

He started off playing for the Tawa Colts but was quickly elevated to the Premiers in mid-2010. His debut game starting at loosehead prop was Tawa's famous 42-35 comeback win over Poneke in that year's Swindale Shield. Trailing 7-35 early in the second half, they came roaring back with five unanswered tries over the final quarter of the match.

Remarkably, he'd hardly played any representative rugby for Wellington teams until his Lions debut last year. He made his ITM Cup debut for the Lions in the season opener against Counties Manukau, just after playing for Wellington against the All Blacks at the Hutt Recreation Ground, packing down against the likes of Charlie Faumuina and Owen Franks. ?

"Until last year I'd hardly played in any representative games. I got called into one training for the U18s but that was about it."

Perhaps one reason why Fahamokioa's name wasn't on representative teamsheets was the fact that he was keeping company with three players who already have Super Rugby experience - Lions teammates Reggie Goodes, Jeff Toomaga-Allen and Bay of Plenty prop Solomona Sakalia. Eti Sului, who represented the Samoan U20s in the recent Junior World Cup, is another player in this front row group all out Wellington College a few years ago.

"I was in the Wellington College team in 2008 and 2009, and was playing with those guys, and also Lima Sopoaga who was our first five-eighth. So we had a pretty good team."

Other players out of Wellington College that year included Andrew Wells, who starts for the Lions on the left wing on Friday, basketball captain and Second XV star Ambrose Curtis, who starts on the other wing, and Tawa Jubilee Cup winning teammate Tito Ioane.

Fahamokioa was born in Tonga and his family moved to New Zealand in 1999, first to Auckland and then to Wellington.

Blessed with the Tongan physical skillset of power and pace, one Tawa club member recently told Club Rugby that Fahamokioa was as quick as [NZ Sevens representative] George Tilsley; others backed that up by saying he keeps pace with Tawa's backs at training.

Fahamokioa himself was quick to downplay that one. "I'm probably faster over the first 10 metres but after that, I'm just an ordinary prop. They're just kidding!"

Although He did start his career out wide, emulating the most famous Tongan rugby player of them all, Jonah Lomu.

"I started out as a winger years ago in U12s, in my age-grade days, and then slowly moved my way in to the forwards as I got bigger.

"I grew up watching Jonah and wanting to be like him, so that's why I wanted to play on the wing when I first started."

Vaea Fifita, who starts off the Lions bench on Friday night, is also from Tonga and moved to New Zealand just a few years ago.

?Asked if he's played other sports such as athletics, Fahamokioa said his focus has mostly been on rugby. "I've pretty much always just played rugby, I gave cricket a try but that didn't go too well so I've mostly just stuck with rugby."

Outside of rugby, Fahamokioa says he's been working towards completing a nursing degree. But if his rugby career continues on its present upward trajectory, that could be put on hold for a while longer yet.

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