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Melbourne Rebels continue off-season recruitment drive by signing NRL wing
By AAP
Gold Coast's Young Tonumaipea is returning home to Melbourne but to play Super Rugby with the Rebels rather than with the Storm in the NRL.
Making his debut in 2014, Tonumaipea played five seasons with the Storm before leaving midway through the 2018 campaign to follow his faith and undertake a Mormon mission.
He then joined the Titans for 2020, making 10 appearances, but decided to return to his roots, signing a two-year deal with the Rebels.
He said he was excited to be back in Melbourne, joining his former Storm teammate Marika Koroibete at the Rebels, and looked forward to a new challenge in rugby union.
"Melbourne is home for me, so I can't wait to be back home with my family and friends, in the city I love, back at my old stomping grounds," said Tonumaipea.
"When I came back to the NRL after being away, I was determined to prove I could still play at the highest level and now having fulfilled that goal, I'm driven to succeed at this new challenge.
"I'm also pumped to be rubbing shoulders with Marika (Koroibete) again and I also know a few of the other boys like Hodgey (Reece Hodge) and Pone (Fa'amausili) as well."
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Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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