THE TASH IS BACK
All Blacks powerhouse Karl Tu’inukuafe eyes a return to Super rugby
WHEN life serves up lemons, Blues and All Blacks prop Karl Tu’inukuafe tries to make lemonade. Like when he was stuck working security in Auckland’s inner-city prior to his storied rugby comeback of 2018 and he used the downtime prowling empty entertainment venues to teach himself the piano.
Yes, some props are the proverbial piano shifters. This one prefers to tickle the ivories with his own chubby digits. It is fair to say there is a lot more to this power-packed 135kg frontrower and storybook success story of New Zealand rugby than meets the eye.
The 27-year-old Aucklander has had a rollercoaster ride since launching his comeback just over two years ago. He started 2018 without even a professional contract, got called up to the Chiefs when loosehead props started dropping like flies and within months was an All Black, playing 13 of the year’s 14 tests and garnering comparisons to the legendary Keith Murdoch, for his mighty moustache and fearsome scrummaging abilities.
His 2019 season took a dip, decimated by a debilitating bout of viral meningitis that removed him for much of Super Rugby and ultimately saw him miss out on the Rugby World Cup, but a full recovery had seen him launch a promising 2020 campaign with the resurgent Blues, before the sporting world came to a shuddering halt with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now, like rugby players the world over, Tu’inukuafe is biding his time, desperate to return to doing what he does best. Unlike many, there is nary a hint of angst about the path ahead. This burly bouncer turned big bopper of the front row has long ago learnt to take life’s twists and turns in his formidable stride.
When the Sunday News catches up with Tu’inukuafe he’s between workouts at his west of Auckland home, keeping a loose eye on 15-month-old (and increasingly mobile) twin boys Siamaka and Tu’uta, supervising the schoolwork of nearly 7-year-old son Marley, and generally doing his best to make the most of a situation he considers by no means onerous.
If you want tough, try being told by your doctor, as he was just a handful of years back, that after ballooning out to nearly 175kg he was heading towards an early grave if he didn’t do something about it. At the time Big Karl had been working a mostly sedentary security job, making poor diet choices and spiralling his health down a cul-desac of despair.
But rugby, the sport he excelled at while at Wesley College (where he formed a fearsome front row alongside All Black Nepo Laulala), but which he’d drifted away from, offered a lifeline. Literally. The weight came off, the fitness levels improved and what unfolded was the remarkable story that we now know warmly as the rise and rise of Karl Tu’inukuafe.
‘‘I’ve actually enjoyed my time at home,’’ he declares. ‘‘My heart goes out to all those affected . . . but I’m pretty happy watching the kids play and waiting it out till we can get back on the field. We’re pretty lucky compared to other people losing jobs and so on. It’s hard not to be grateful for what we’ve got.’’
Tu’inukuafe is what you might call self-motivated.
Early arrivers at the Blues’ training facility are well used to seeing him in logging his time on the watt bike or pumping iron at a time when many are still tucked up in their beds. Now, from home, he has developed a routine that ticks all the boxes.
‘‘I don’t train unless my twins are asleep,’’ he says. ‘‘When they take their first nap in the morning I jump on the watt bike or head for a run on a patch of grass down the road, and do some rehab. Then when they sleep at night, I usually get in a heavy weights session.’’
As mentioned, there’s more to this man than meets the eye. Fans of Sky’s Isolation Nation might have seen him revealing his prowess on the piano.
He explains: ‘‘With my job as a security guard (with Auckland Live), whenever I was free when I was locking down performance arts buildings in the city, I would jump on the pianos, and watch YouTube videos on how to play. I don’t know which keys are which, but I pretty much learned to play off that.’’
Tu’inukuafe has also been a quick study on the field. After his health-inspired return to the game in 2015, he picked up a contract in France (with Narbonne) in 2016 and was only denied a second year by a broken leg that had him back in New Zealand awaiting his next opportunity.
It came with the Chiefs in 2018, then the All Blacks, and finally, in 2019, with the Blues who were happy to snap up the hometown boy. It’s fair to say the big man is bristling to get back on the field, with some unfinished business to tend to.