Brothers at the World Cup
Isitolo Maka is Tonga’s coach at the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Their captain at the tournament is his brother, Finau, who has been left out of the Tongan side to face Japan in Pool A action on Wednesday. It got us thinking, how many brothers are in action at the World Cup in New Zealand?
Some brothers are on the same side in NZ; some are on different sides. Two brothers are twins.
The twins are playing for Australia – centre Anthony Fainga’a and hooker Saia Fainga’a. And by the looks of things baby brother Colby – a flank – could be at the World Cup in 2015.
Two sets of brothers are in the front row – props Ben Franks and Owen Franks of New Zealand and prop Jannie du Plessis and hooker Bismarck. The Du Plessis brothers were at the 2007 Rugby World Cup; Bismarck from the start – after replacing Pierre Spies in the squad – and Jannie later on as an injury replacement for BJ Botha.
Georgia has brothers in the pack – lock Vakhtang and No.8 Zviad Maisuradze. The USA has brothers in the backs – Andrew and Roland Suniula, both born in American Samoa.
Two other Samoan brothers, both backs, were born in the other part of Samoa, which used to be called Western Samoa – George and Tusi Pisi.
Namibia has two back brothers – Darryl and Ryan de la Harpe, while Italy have one on the wing, Mirco Bergamasco, and one on the flank, Mauro Bergamasco, both sons of a father who was an Italian international.
Then there are two sets of brothers in different sides.
The Tagicakibaus are both wings but Sailosi plays for Samoa and Michael for Fiji. They were both born in New Zealand and currently play their club rugby in England – Sailosi for London Irish and Michael for Saracens.
Then there are the brothers from the remarkable, frightening Tuilagis. It’s an interesting story, the Tuilagi one…
They are a family of five internationals, big men who play mostly in the backs though they look like props and locks. Providing for them must have been a major task for Mother Tuilagi.
And now after four Samoan internationals they have one playing for England, also with frightening power. They were all born in Samoa. Of and there is another one – Vavae (centre/wing).
Freddie (centre/wing), Henry (No.8), Alex (Alesana – wing) and Andy (Anitelea – centre/wing) have all played for Samoa at some point but Manu (full name Manusamoa) is a centre in the England squad for the World Cup, whilst powerful wing Alex plays on for Samoa.
Manu was born in Samoa in 1991, but he finished his schooling at John Cleveland College in Leicestershire.
In June 2010, however; Manu faced deportation from the United Kingdom after it emerged that he had entered the country on a holiday visa six years earlier and had stayed on illegally. After an appeal, he was later granted indefinite leave to remain.
Now, he is playing for England at the 2011 RWC, becoming his country’s youngest-ever World Cup try-scorer at the weekend against Georgia.
