Humble Taumalolo was destined for great things
Former teacher in Auckland remembers the Cowboys enforcer as a young man who always had a physical presence.
ALL the signs were there about how special Jason Taumalolo would be when he was a 14-yearold student at De La Salle College.
Tonight he’ll run on the field for North Queensland Cowboys, in the NRL Grand Final against the Melbourne Storm.
As a Kiwi, he’ll have plenty of New Zealanders rooting for him, but at his old school in Mangere East, Auckland, they’ll be cheering him on that little bit more.
Taumalolo, who won the Dally MMedal last year, could add the Clive Churchill Medal to his collection after this weekend’s game at ANZ Stadium and is arguably the greatest league player in the world.
He has the rugby league world at his feet, yet remains a humble and grounded individual.
That’s not a surprise to Johnny Rex, his year-nine English teacher from De La Salle College, as he says Taumalolo was always like that.
‘‘He was a quite boisterous student, but it was only occasional that he was rowdy, most of the time he was pretty quiet,’’ Rex remembered.
‘‘He was a kid who’d come in, put his head down and get on with his work and be respectful.
‘‘I remember him for a kid of his size being pretty humble.
‘‘Even as a year-nine student he had a physical presence, he was already head and shoulders above everyone else.’’
As a young teen, Taumalolo already looked like an athlete. He was a popular figure among other students and was looked up to, literally and figuratively.
‘‘Obviously he had that physical presence,’’ Rex said. ’’But in the schoolyard talk, when the boys talk among themselves he was already a bit of a name. You’d hear the boys talking around him, saying he was pretty much the man on the league field.’’
Although he was someone who stood out, there wasn’t an ego with Taumalolo. He could be cheeky, but knew where the boundaries were.
He was also someone who was driven. He had his heart set on being an NRL player and was prepared to make sacrifices to get there.
‘‘You could see he had a streak to him, but he always had it under check,’’ Rex said.
‘‘He was disciplined, he knew when to turn it on and when to switch it off.
‘‘For him and our school, even though we’re regarded as a rugby school, traditionally we were one of the power bases of league back in the day and Sonny Fai was coming up at the time.
‘‘So it’s not like he was lacking for role models in terms of older Pasifika brothers.
‘‘I remember talking to him back then and he always wanted to be a professional NRL player.
‘‘From a young age he had that ambition and drive, to not only be a player, but to be an awesome player.’’
In 2007 Taumalolo was part of a New Zealand touring team to Australia and this is where his talents were spotted by NRL clubs.
He made the decision to go to Townsville, with the Cowboys also signing his older brother, Warner.
Initially, the brothers went there on their own and stayed with a host family and it was some time after that mumand dad also relocated. LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF
‘‘I remember talking to him about it, I think it was halfway through the year,’’ Rex said.
‘‘I asked him if he wanted to go and he said he didn’t really want to leave New Zealand, to uproot himself and move to Australia.
‘‘But he knew if he wanted to be a full time NRL player he’d have to make sacrifices and that was one the biggest ones, leaving home as 14-year-old and relocating over there.
‘‘That would have been hard for him.’’
As well as Taumalolo, other league players like Henry Fa’afili, Leeson Ah Mau, Frank-Paul Nuuausala, Motu Tony, Jeff Lima, Lesley Vainikolo and the late Fai all went to De La Salle College.
But it’s a school that no longer plays league, instead it focuses on the 15-man code.
‘‘Since 2001 we’ve concentrated on union,’’ Rex said.
‘‘That comes down to the fact that when you take away our junior school, which is 250-300 students, we’re a really small college and we’ve only got 600-650 boys to choose from.
‘‘So we were mediocre at both codes and the principal at the time said let’s concentrate in one sport and put all of our eggs in one basket, with that being union.’’
‘ I remember him for a kid of his size being pretty humble. Even as a yearnine student he had a physical presence, he was already head and shoulders above everyone else.’ JOHNNY REX, DE LA SALLE COLLEGE