Tongan Bear revels in his extraordinary rags to riches story that has now earned him a Clermont extension
“Tongan Bear” Loni Uhila has revealed the extraordinary commitment he put into making a career as a professional rugby player.
The unlikely cult hero prop of the Hurricanes’ 2016 Super Rugby title victory is these days making inroads on the French scene, recently agreeing a one-year contract extension with Clermont.
However, what is most intriguing about the 29-year-old’s rise to prominence is the hard yards he put in to make it as a rugby player in the first place.
But for a fortunate twist of fate, the journey that has taken him from Tonga to France via title success in Wellington might never have started but for the good word his friend Isileli Vakauta put in for him.
“I grew up in a very poor family, but in a very supportive environment,” he said in Friday’s edition of Midi Olympique, the by-weekly French rugby newspaper.
“My luck is that one of my best friends, Isileli Vakauta, was offered a scholarship to study at Sacred Heart College in Auckland. But at the same time, he had finally decided to go to Japan. So there was still a place in Auckland, and Isileli appointed me to replace him.
“It was very generous of him because he knew other very good players who had been in the under-16 and under 18 Tonga teams, when I had never been selected. Without him, nothing would have happened.”
That breakthrough only got him to a certain level, though, and he was on the verge of quitting the sport when his career was fast-tracked out of the blue to fame and fortune through an unexpected call from Chris Boyd’s Hurricanes, a giant step on the road that has since taken him to France.
“I’m very happy to stay in Clermont for another season. You know, until I was almost 26 years old, I had never managed to live rugby. In New Zealand, I played for Waikato in ITM Cup, but I was never called into Super Rugby.
“To earn a living, I worked for seven years as a storekeeper for a New Zealand company, Pro-Life Food. From 8am to 5pm I emptied containers, while I trained between 6am and 7am and from 6pm to 9pm, practically every day.
“My eldest daughter was asking me why she never saw me. It was hard… in 2015, I told my wife Amanda: if at the end of this season of ITM Cup I have no offer of contract, too bad, I stop rugby.
“And I finally received this call from the Hurricanes, who offered me a two-year contract! Better, for my first season in Super Rugby, in 2016, we literally won the title.”
It was Carl Hoeft, the former All Black prop who coached the Waikato forwartds, who baptised Uhila as the Tongan Bear, a nickname since reinforced as he used it when he twice fought David Letele in charity boxing bouts.
That nickname is still what he is called today in France, but he needed a second opportunity at Clermont following a false start just his second game to demonstrate the robustness that has now led to a contract extension that will keep him at the club until June 2020.
“For my second Top 14 match against Lyon, I took a red card for a dangerous tackle (on Lionel Beauxis). In the same action, I broke my arm at a place where I had already been operated in New Zealand. At the beginning, it was not so good.”
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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