Va’aiga Lealuga Tuigamala

4 September 1969 – 24 February 2022

The Ponsonby District Rugby Club sadly acknowledges the passing of one of its outstanding players and All Blacks, Va’aiga (Inga) Tuigamala. He was only 52.

The large Tuigamala family has given much to the Ponsonby club through its Kelston arm over a prolonged period, and Inga, as he was generally known in his New Zealand playing days, was the one who rose to the greatest heights on a rugby field. Those heights included representing two countries, as he had a second international career with Samoa, after a highly regarded stint with Wigan in English rugby league at a time when that club was a powerhouse.

He was first noticed on a wider scale as a dynamic winger with Kelston Boys High School, from where he gained selection in one of the best New Zealand Secondary Schools teams ever fielded, in 1987. Six backs went on to full All Black honours, as did a couple of forwards. Three – Tuigamala, Craig Innes and Jasin Goldsmith – all finished up at Ponsonby but Goldsmith’s virtually career ending leg injury complications meant his best rugby was played as a teenager.

Tuigamala blossomed at the club and, in 1989 and still yet to see 20, had a season that almost defied belief. He was a big lad but a fine athlete, with real speed and a yard-wide sidestep, and could make his markers look silly in a number of ways. That season he only needed a couple of yards to move in and he was gone, likely untouched.

At club level he broke the Auckland record for most tries in a season, with 25, despite missing a large chunk of the programme. In one spell of seven matches and just over a month (15 April to 20 May), he scored four hat-tricks and 19 tries. He added another hat-trick later, his second for the season against College Rifles. In six games for Auckland – two as a replacement – he scored ten tries including five at Ashburton; he scored a hat-trick in the All Black trial, one for New Zealand Colts against their Australian rivals and another for the Barbarians against Counties. Playing for Auckland Colts against Waikato, he was the star of the show in a 112-4 rout, scoring three tries and having a major hand in six others.

In sum Tuigamala scored more than 50 tries that season, all at Senior level or above, and included ten hat-tricks in his haul. There were two bags of five and one of four in that lot. There was no doubt he’d make the All Blacks for the British tour, and he was one of eight new players. That year’s selection of first-timers ranks among the country’s best ever, as most went on to long and highly successful careers. Ponsonby proudly saluted four members of the touring party – all in the outside backs (Tuigamala, Matthew Ridge, Innes and Joe Stanley).

Tuigamala’s selection marked another notable milestone – he was the first All Black with a distinctively Polynesian name. The power of that inspiration is impossible to measure but, as was the case with Bryan Williams’ selection nearly 20 years before, a very significant moment for the Pasifika community; it is often mentioned as a marker post by those who have followed.

In the All Blacks Tuigamala was recognised as one of the first blockbusting wingers and, progressively, used as such more frequently. Seen as something of an amalgam of Bryan Williams and John Kirwan, he finished up being neither. As the first Va’aiga Tuigamala he could have been anything, but as a battering ram up the middle he was sacrificed.

To cope with the bashings handed out by loose forwards – who were, after all, the same size as he was – Tuigamala bulked up. But with that increase in weight came a diminished agility and he was never the same sensational player again, and his confidence also dropped. A third of the 67 tries he scored in his 106-match first-class career came in those magical 11 games in 1989.

Eventually his form declined to the point where he was left out by Auckland, and managed one try in seven matches on the British tour although he held his test place. He had, however, been offered a contract to join Wigan, then the major force in English rugby league, and he accepted it; he was the last of Ponsonby’s three young musketeers of 1989 to make the switch.

Training as a professional, Tuigamala got into better shape than he had been for four years and played his best consistent football so far in the cherry-and-white hoops. He shed the inconvenient weight without losing any power, and posted similar career scoring numbers (62 tries in 102 matches) without the Everest of 1989 in there. And that was as a marked man, who was certain to be closely monitored by long-time league players with a point to make.

When rugby went professional in 1995, he was one of the first players to return. Now able, under the eligibility rules then in place, to represent Western Samoa, he was welcomed into the team touring Britain and was one of the biggest influences in it. He played as a storming midfielder, producing an outstanding display against Ireland, where he led Manu Samoa to a 41-25 win, and his seniority and standing meant he was able to exert an important off-field influence as well. He finished up playing more tests for Samoa (23) than he did for New Zealand (19); it can also be said that Samoa got the best out of him.

Tuigamala finished his playing career in England, where he was widely respected as a mature leader among young men sometimes struggling to adapt to the demands of professionalism. Always a deeply religious man, he had his life in good order and his inner strength was a beacon to some colleagues, most notably Jason Robinson, the star dual-code winger.

When he retired and returned to New Zealand, Tuigamala became a funeral director. Suited by personality to comfort the bereaved, his most notable charge was the late king of Tonga, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, in 2006. He was made MNZM in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2008, for services to rugby and the community. He remained immensely popular, especially with children, and his trademark smile was never too far from his face. One of his last public appearances was in July 2021, when the main rugby ground at Kelston Boys was renamed in his honour.

Va’aiga Tuigamala died at Auckland on 24 February 2022.

Ponsonby and All Black great, and Tuigamala’s former coach, Sir Bryan Williams, included the following in a heartfelt tribute:

‘I first met him when he was 16. I was 35. I marked him in a game between Ponies and a Kelston Boys team. After the dust had settled, he’d scored five tries … I was made to look second rate. And all with that beautiful smile.

[I have] so many memories of this wonderful human being.’

Written by Paul Neazor

Article added: Monday 28 February 2022