Elevate+ Player Spotlight: Tauasosi Tuimavave Poneke

Poneke's wing/fullback Tauasosi (Sosi) Tuimavave hit the headlines earlier this season after scoring 50 points in a Swindale Shield match against Rimutaka in just his third ever Premier appearance. Tuimavave nailed 10 conversions and crossed for six tries to score almost half his team's points in the one-sided win. His quick footwork and eye for a gap, as well as his sharp kicking game, has impressed in several further performances at the back for the red and blacks, who this coming weekend face a tough battle against Old Boys University at Nairnville Park. Poneke realistically need to win or draw against OBU to make the ‘top eight' ahead of Northern United and avoid having to defend the Hardham Cup throughout the second half of the season.

Samoan born Tuimavavae moved to New Zealand 10 years ago and is a former St Pat's Town star, only injury holding him back from higher honours in 2012.?A New Zealand U17 development squad member in 2010 and the Wellington Premier 1 First XV competition's leading points scorer in 2010, Tuimavavae also missed most of the 2011 season after breaking his arm twice. In March 2013 he played for the Hurricanes Development XV on the wing in a charity match against Sydney club Northern Suburbs.?

Name: Tauasosi Tuimavave

Club: Poneke

Playing position: Wing/fullback

Secondary School attended: St Patrick's College Town

Premier debut: Versus Northern United, Swindale Shield 2013

Rugby club played for as a junior: Ories U9s and then Poneke U10s, U11s and U12s

Earliest rugby memory: Playing my first game and not knowing any of the rules. All I knew was run to the try line!

Playing positions growing up: Centre and first five-eighth

A favourite memory from First XV rugby: Playing in the St Pat's Town v St Pat's Silverstream in 2010 and scoring all the points for my school and us winning the Traditional for the first time since 1997.

Age-group teams or representative teams played for: Wellington U10s, U11s, U12s, U13s, U14s and U16s; Wellington Sevens; New Zealand U17s; Hurricanes U18s; Hurricanes Development XV

Favourite rugby player: Sonny Bill Williams, for his offload and how he can multitask in sport with rugby, rugby league and boxing.

What I like about training: I like feeling the pain and feeling good afterwards.

Something people don't know about me: I love boxing!

Outside of rugby I: Work for Fuji Xerox

Favourite superhero: Goku from Dragon ball Z

Favourite movie: Lawless. Blood in, Blood out.

My signature dish is: Toast! With nuttela on top and with a hot cup of tea.

A motto I live by is: Train hard! Suffer now and the reward will follow.

Best piece of advice from my parents: Train hard; do it all for your family back in Samoa

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