Polota-nau staying loyal to Tigers after old club’s bitter spell
Hooker will not return to Australia despite his World Cup ambitions, he tells Daniel Schofield ‘They were putting players in such a state that they did not have a future’
Leicester hooker Tatafu Polota-nau is that rarest of creatures: a professional sportsman prepared to act upon his principles. When the Western Force were axed by Rugby Australia last September – the league was trimmed for financial reasons – Polota-nau was left without a club. This was not an accident.
As the Wallabies starting hooker, Polota-nau could have prepared to pitch up at another Australian Super Rugby franchise. That would have been the smart move, particularly for a 32-year-old who has aspirations of playing at the 2019 World Cup.
Instead, Polota-nau, who starts this evening’s crucial match against Newcastle, told his agent to look overseas. If Rugby Australia turned their back on the Force, so Polota-nau would turn his back on them. “I was quite stubborn,” Polota-nau said. “I wanted to see what the end result of the review was.
“For the majority of guys in Australia, this is not just the job but their livelihoods. Families are affected. Fortunately, I don’t have a direct family structure, but guys with young families were just distraught. That’s my team-mate who you are affecting and here you are wanting to put them in such a terrible state that they do not have a future. So, it was a point of principle to the fact you need to show me that you care about these guys; if not, then I may as well pursue alternatives.”
Time has not soothed the hurt. Despite being in Perth for just 12 months, Polota-nau talks passionately about the potential of the community programmes along the west coast of Australia. The sense of injustice after the Force finished second among the Australian franchises in Super Rugby last year was combined with the overwhelming shock when the news was delivered just days before a Bledisloe Cup match against New Zealand.
“It was devastating,” Polota-nau said. “I am not going to lie. Emotionally, it overwhelms you because you have your team-mates there as well. Guys who have planned their stages of moving on, that’s fine, but I was definitely concerned for the guys who didn’t get an opportunity. Seeing the hurt in their faces is not ideal. Personally, I needed to keep my focus at hand and prepare for the Bledisloe, but my concentration kept falling out because my mind was with the people in Western Australia.”
If you cannot tell by now, Polota-nau is not your typical rugby professional. His first passion was computers and his dream job was in mechatronic engineering, writing software for heavy machinery. He started playing union only at 16 when a rugby-mad teacher, Paul Ridgeway, started at Granville South High School. Still, Polota-nau possesses considerable pedigree. His uncle, Hopoi Taione, is believed to be the first foreigner to represent the Japanese national team, while his cousin was a professional wrestler, Haku, in the WWF.
“We had a family reunion a couple of years ago and it was great to hear all his stories,” Polota-nau said. “He was tag-team partners with Andre the Giant and he told me stories about how Andre put
away copious amounts of alcohol. He was also good friends with the Rock’s dad and when the Rock first started wrestling, he didn’t have any trunks to wrestle in so my cousin lent him his.”
As he joined Leicester straight after Australia’s northern hemisphere tour, Polota-nau has effectively played 14 months straight, but has no complaints.
He has also adapted quickly to the Leicester way of doing things, particularly around the primacy of