A weight off his shoulders
In our continuing series about looking back at the most memorable sports stories of 2018, today we go back to April when sports writer Aaron Goile spoke to now All Black Karl Tu’inukuafe after his life-changing weight turnaround.
The doctor wasn’t mincing words with Karl Tu’inukuafe. It was just a few years back, and sitting at 170kg, the now Chiefs prop was given an ultimatum: get exercising or keep being plagued by health problems.
That was all Tu’inukuafe needed to hear. He wasn’t about to muck around. He had just started a family and, after a few seasons away from the sport, the former whopping Wesley College loosehead was straight back into footy.
Now here he is, at 25 years old, weighing around 135kg, suddenly set for a Super Rugby start – against the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday night, where he’ll pack down against the ‘Tongan Thor’, Taniela Tupou.
Tu’inukuafe wasn’t originally contracted by the Chiefs but was called by coach Colin Cooper last October to see if he’d like a look at what a Super Rugby preseason is all about.
All of a sudden, though, he was to get an eyeful of competition proper too, called onto the bench in just the second match in a squad beset by injuries to props.
And it has continued that way since, with short cameos from the reserves, until last Friday, against the Hurricanes in Wellington, when Aidan Ross suffered a broken ankle and Tu’inukuafe put in an extensive 63-minute effort, which had the coach impressed.
‘‘He’s a bit of an unknown,’’ Cooper said. ‘‘We always knew he could scrum, and as you could see, we were bringing him on to try and turn scrums over. His challenge was to get fit enough to play the way the Chiefs are playing. And I thought he handled himself really well.’’
Indeed, Tu’inukuafe was quite a presence around the park, now back near the weight he was when at the south Auckland school with such a proud rugby tradition, alongside fellow Chiefs prop Nepo Laulala.
‘‘They breed them big over there,’’ Tu’inukuafe said.
‘‘Wesley had us on set meals but it was always the extras we had after school and in the weekend. I guess it was just eating whatever makes you feel good.’’
Tu’inukuafe went through Counties Manukau rep teams but, after finishing school, he also finished with rugby, as life’s realities sunk in.
‘‘It wasn’t doing anything money-wise, I had to get a job to support my family,’’ he said.
‘‘I was just doing a desk job for security in town and I just packed on the weight. I was about 170 kilos. I started having a lot of health problems. Just to lose weight was the main goal.
‘‘I was forced to pretty much play the game again.
‘‘The doctor just said I need to do something and I thought rugby would be fun.’’
So, in 2015, the boots were laced back up and Tu’inukuafe was playing club rugby, then getting a call into North
‘‘The doctor just said I need to do something and I thought rugby would be fun.’’
Karl Tu’inukuafe
Harbour’s wider squad.
A season at French club Narbonne followed, where former Wallaby Rocky Elsom was a player and shareholder and had touched base with Harbour backs coach and former Waratahs team-mate Daniel Halangahu about any props with not much on their schedules after the Mitre 10 Cup.
Tu’inukuafe learnt off some wily veterans in France and was meant to return for a second season but a broken leg put paid to that.
‘‘But I guess it opened the door to this, so I’m grateful,’’ he said of Super Rugby.
‘‘When you get the call for an opportunity like this you’ve just got to take it, eh.
‘‘I guess it’s just a much more fun job than sitting at a desk, so [I’ll] just try to play as long as I can.’’