LONG READ Telusa Veainu: ‘There’s something spiritual, a feeling of home when I go back to the Tonga team’

The trio of Telusa Veainu, Logo Mulipola and Semesa Rokoduguni have an affectionate nickname among their younger peers at Doncaster. Having ‘the pensioners’ around, combined age 112, comes with considerable benefits, passing on what it takes to play at the top.

“We’re all mentally the same age [as the younger players], but physically, we are all probably feeling it a lot more, taking a lot more time to recover,” Veainu admits.

There will be little opportunity to rest for the 35-year-old this summer. A recall by Tonga to play in the Nations Cup, two years after Veainu’s last cap against Spain, came as a most welcome surprise.

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought they might have run out of players,” he jokes. “But no, I’m really excited. I guess just to test myself and see if I’ve still got it. The biggest confidence is the coach’s belief, backing me to come in and join in.”

Understandably, Veainu wondered if that might be it for his Test career after that most recent run-out in Nuku’alofa in July 2024. He missed the 2023 Rugby World Cup, working his way back from ACL and hamstring injuries, deciding the best place for him to be was at home with his wife, who had just given birth. It was a “bittersweet” feeling, watching Tonga compete from home while at the same time spending invaluable time with his new son.

Playing for the ‘Ikale Tahi at the 2015 Rugby World Cup was Veainu’s breakthrough moment, putting him on the radar of Leicester Tigers who signed him up the following month. Veainu and the scrum-half Sonatane Takulua are the only survivors in Tonga’s squad from that tournament. When he speaks about wearing the famous red shirt, there is a sense of gratitude there, and a warmth that has not faded.

“I owe a lot to Tonga rugby, because that’s where it kicked off my career. I can’t wait to go back and just get along with the boys, because there’s something spiritual, a feeling of home when I go back to the Tonga team.”

This summer’s schedule, with games against Zimbabwe, Spain and Portugal played across the United States and Canada, will give Tonga valuable time to build cohesion and familiarity going into the Rugby World Cup next year. And as Veainu notes, Tonga’s depth has arguably never been stronger, no longer having to drop down multiple levels into the club game to fill out a squad.

If you’re the best of the best, then you can’t blame them for leaving the island and going to make [life] better for themselves, you know?

“It’s going to be good to have that cohesion and try and build some foundations into 2027 with some of the players that we have. A lot of them have good experience, whereas before we would have to draw some from club rugby back in Auckland or Tonga. Now with Moana Pasifika, ProD2, URC, we’re seeing some more sprinklings all around.”

Nevertheless, the game in Tonga continues to battle major challenges. The lure of rugby league is growing, while Japanese universities offer scholarships to young prospects.

“It’s whatever financially supports your family, you know, first and foremost. You can’t really fight that, because they’re getting a good ticket to leave the island and go and provide for their family, you know? You can’t really blame them,” Veainu says.

“If you’re the best of the best, then you can’t blame them for leaving the island and going to make [life] better for themselves, you know? It’s all got to do with money, isn’t it?

“At the moment with a lot of those guys, scouts are coming over and saying, ‘Yo, do you want to come play rugby league with Jason Taumalolo or Latrell Mitchell?’, whoever it is, and they’re like, ‘You know what? Yeah, why not?’”

Watching Fiji gradually pick up more matches against leading nations has also shown how Tonga could potentially develop if afforded the same opportunities, rather than one-off Tests like last November’s 56-0 drubbing at the hands of Scotland. While the Nations Cup has immeasurable benefits, Veainu believes more Tests against top sides are required for Tonga to truly take a leap.

“It’s always good to play together, but the thing we’d like to do as well is also play some Tier One nation teams more. Look at Fiji now, they’re playing [elite sides] a lot more and look how much better they’ve got. Argentina back in the day too before the Rugby Championship. It’s no disrespect to the other Emerging Nations, but in order for us to compete we can’t just keep playing the same nations. If we go and play England, yeah we might get pumped but the learnings from that are huge in terms of where we need to get to. It’s a good reality check.”

Life at Doncaster, meanwhile, has been good for Veainu and his family, giving them stability. He has signed up for one more year, with Darren Fearn, Doncaster’s head coach, exalting Veainu’s leadership skills and the example he sets for younger players.

A few hugs and a few jabs here and there to some of the boys, but apart from that, I just try and lead with my actions and the way that I play. Because if I don’t do that, then they’re not going to listen to what I say.

External investment into Champ clubs is on the rise, and the importance of a thriving second tier for the development of young British players in need of match time is a point that Veainu stresses on multiple occasions. Back-rower Rhys Tait, prop-turned-number eight Jasper McGuire, centre Zach Kerr and wing Aidan Cross are all name-checked as promising talents who impressed for Doncaster last season.

“It’s such an underrated but also really important competition for English rugby. I know that if we get that competition nice and strong because there’s so much talent in there, it’ll make English rugby even better in terms of the young academy boys coming in.”

His role with Knights, as he sees it, is to convince those players who have either dropped out of the top flight or an academy that the leap is not too big, having played for a number of professional sides throughout his career including the Highlanders, Crusaders, Leicester, Stade Français and Sale Sharks.

Working with younger team-mates also shows how much has changed. “We came through the Cockers era where it was like a dictatorship type thing,” Veainu recalls of his time early on at Tigers under Richard Cockerill. I remark that several veteran players have said recently how confident younger players can seem in training and matches.

“That’s totally right. Sometimes behind that is a bit of a mask at times, you know, because it could take one bad game and the whole thing comes down. But I guess that’s the role of myself, Longo and Rok, to try and build that confidence and give them that resilience, you know?

“It’s giving the boys some confidence, because they don’t realise how far away the PREM is. It’s not that far, if you think about it, to get signed,” he explains.

“If anything, it is for me to just guide them in terms of their confidence, back them and also help them with their individual prep. I know with the prep, there are sometimes part-time elements to it that can also hinder your progress to get to the top. But at the same time, they don’t have too much to get better, it’s just a few tweaks or daily habits, the way they train or things like that.

“The way I try and lead is probably just by example, more than anything. A few hugs and a few jabs here and there to some of the boys, but apart from that, I just try and lead with my actions and the way that I play. Because if I don’t do that, then they’re not going to listen to what I say.”

Doncaster seem thrilled to have Veainu around for another season, one which could wrap up with an incredible conclusion if Veainu is still with Tonga when they head to Australia for the World Cup. Not bad, for a ‘pensioner’.