HE hails from the yaqona thriving village of Vuma in Levuka, Ovalau with maternal links to Naisaumoa, Tailevu. Samuela Tawake is soft spoken when approached, but a beast when on the field.
The 29-year-old prop began his rugby journey more than a decade ago with the Fiji under 20 rugby team and appeared in 32 games.
He then moved to New Zealand in 2018 to play for a club in Canterbury in the National Provincial Championship (NPC), the second highest level of professional rugby in NZ before joining Manawatu in Palmerston North where he appeared in 10 games.
Before moving on to join the Rugby New York club, in New York City, Tawake played for the Flying Fijians in 2020 and won their first Autumn Nations Cup match against Georgia.
With a promising future to look forward to, the humble Levuka lad enjoys the company of friends and family during his downtime and loves fishing when he’s not playing.
Preparations for the Super Rugby season has been going well so far for him and he is happy with the way everything has been running — especially playing alongside younger team mates.
“It’s been good. Preparations have been going well. I’m happy so far,” Tawake said.
When asked what his favourite food was, Tawake replies with “chicken curry!”
“My wife is from Samoa. She’s amazing and I love what she cooks for me.
“But I can’t say I only like curry chicken so I love whatever she cooks at home. She’s the best.
“I’m also a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops kind of guy — nothing too fancy. And if someone asks me what my favourite colour is, it’s black.”
Reminiscing his younger days he was a bit of a quiet child, but he had his moments of silliness, quiet one minute and cheeky the next.
“I was a bit of both. I was the quiet and talkative one.”
Determined to elevate his game further into the Super Rugby games this year, Tawake aims to strengthen his skills, focusing on tackling techniques and body positioning while also enhancing the team’s line-out consistency.
As the Fijian Drua build on their performances in the Super Rugby Pacific competition, Tawake is optimistic about the team’s result in future games.
