LONG READ Sam Talakai: 'I thought about what would my dad have wanted, and I knew in my heart he'd have wanted me to play'

In the winter of his career, responsibility sits well on the muscular shoulders of Sam Talakai. The responsibility to deliver for his Glasgow Warriors as they prepare to host Connacht in the URC quarter-finals and push for a second title in three seasons. The responsibility to guide the club’s emerging front-rowers with his years of wisdom. The responsibility to enrich the lives of his six-year-old twins travelling the rugby world alongside him. And the responsibility to aid his mother and younger siblings many thousands of miles away, at home in Sydney.

Talakai is the eldest of five. There are three boys and two girls, and close to two decades between 34-year-old Talakai and his youngest sister. His brother Chris is also a professional player and recently won the Nationale title with Narbonne in the south of France. Middle child Adiana plays hooker for the Wallaroos and excelled at Rugby World Cup 2025. The two babies of the clan – Waratahs age-grade player Kaiasi and little sister Daphne – are still in high school.

The Talakais were raised in Australia but with Tongan blood coursing through their veins and Tongan morals at the heart of their household. The standards were set by the family patriarch, Petani, a quiet, indefatigable but loving father. Tragically, Petani died suddenly in April last year. He had dropped Adiana off to board the team bus for a Wallaroos camp and later that day, suffered a fatal heart attack. Talakai was training with Franco Smith’s Warriors when this desperate news reached him.

“We were playing the Bulls that weekend and I got a call during the captain’s run,” he says. “Franco was unreal. He said there was no pressure to play that weekend. I slept on it, I just thought about what would my dad have wanted, and I knew deep down in my heart he would have wanted me to play and do as best as I could in that moment. After that, it was on me to come home and send him off the right way.”

Now my old man has gone and I’m on the other side of the world, I’m the big brother, but my mum needs help sometimes, especially for my younger brother who is in year 12.

The Talakais pulled together. Sam’s partner, Ella, was a colossal source of strength. His aunties and uncles took care of the logistics and his mother Katalina mapped out the traditional Tongan funeral.

“We don’t really practice for those things,” Talakai reflects. “I was fairly young to lose my dad and just to see my support network come together.

“Coming back to the club here, it was tough because it was during the URC play-offs. It did help me to get back on the field and, not move completely past it, but it was a stepping stone to get back on track not only for my family but my teammates as well.”

The loss of his father has only heightened Talakai’s sense of duty. The distance from Scotland to home is vast but the emotional bonds unbreakable.

“Now my old man has gone and I’m on the other side of the world, I’m the big brother, but my mum needs help sometimes, especially for my younger brother who is in year 12. You’re trying to have conversations, sometimes hard ones, sometimes asking how everything is. It’s just the journey at the moment with our situation.”

The motto of ‘faith, family and footie’ rings true for many Polynesian athletes. Smith, a devout Christian from the South African Free State, relates to Talakai’s philosophy. As a father and a rugby player, he carries the lessons Petani taught him and the example he set. He also understands the importance of grasping the life Petani’s toil made possible.

“My old man taught me resilience, never giving up and sticking at the process. He didn’t have the upbringing that he gave me. I learned through that you’ve got to make the most of every opportunity.

The opportunity my dad gave me to live in Australia and go to school there, I have a responsibility not only for him but for my family to take it with both hands.

“Tongan people born and raised there don’t have many opportunities, and the opportunity he gave me to live in Australia and go to school there, I have a responsibility not only for him but for my family to take it with both hands. To teach my son and daughter these opportunities don’t come around very often so it’s important to do as much as possible to take them and enjoy them.

“Tongan people are big on community so whenever we have birthday gatherings, even being asked to do something, Tongan people are always happy to do stuff for others. I’ve tried to do that coming to Glasgow – complement what’s around, and throw myself into the culture, the places, listening to the boys’ stories about what’s cool to visit.

“Faith is a big one. With Franco being the man he is, I can really follow him into battle because he ticks the boxes my old man instilled in me.”

Rugby league was Talakai’s first love. He has quite the sporting family tree. The Vunipola boys are cousins, as is former NRL great Jim Dymock, a dual international and Australian champion. Talakai’s earliest memories are of charging around the Sydney Football Stadium with his aunt Virgina, watching Dymock thunder into tackles.

“He was the first sportsperson I looked up to. I went to the grand final in 1994 with my auntie and my cousin Cameron. I was only a young kid. We were just running around the ground knowing something big was happening. I remember seeing how there were so many people in the crowd.

“From there, the love of the game grew. As I was getting involved in union at school, I had some really cool mentors coming up. I learned through all of them, everyone has something a bit different. You can’t do it alone. You need your teammates’ help and input. That’s what I try to carry on through my journey. That’s why I love to have my kids around the stadium, the changing room, other players’ kids. I always thank the boys for showing a bit of interest in my kids because small things like that stick.”

Talakai clambered up the union ladder with the Waratahs. He made his professional debut against the 2013 British and Irish Lions; his only game for the senior side who would go on to beat the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final the following winter. A teenage Jack Dempsey was turning heads in the youth ranks behind him. Greg Holmes, Sekope Kepu, and Tatafu Polota-Nau Palu were titanic guiding figures. Talakai wound up moving to Queensland and did three years at the Reds. Next, it was off to the Rebels, then four seasons in Tokyo with Suntory Sungoliath where his kids were born, before returning to Melbourne.

I wasn’t blessed to have a long international career but you see young guys here so eager to get into the Scotland camp, you want to give as much help to them so when they get their chance they have an opportunity to have long international careers.

It took Talakai close to 10 years in the pro ranks to smash the green and gold ceiling. The final match of a gruelling November tour, at the end of an exhausting campaign. Talakai was named on the bench and won his first and only Wallabies cap at the Principality cauldron in Cardiff.

“It was a special moment and it’s bittersweet because once you get a taste you want to have more,” he says. “But there’s a lot of competition back home and I’m just glad I was able to run out in the gold jersey one time.

“When you get there and get told you’re playing, you have a lot of emotions. You don’t want to let your teammates down. It was all about doing my job for the team. I know that sounds so cliched, and it almost wasn’t the feeling of ‘I’ve made it’, it was the feeling of ‘it’s time to go now’. That’s something my dad instilled in us.”

 

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Talakai is a cherished and respected figure at Glasgow. Zander Fagerson calls him ‘koro’, a Maori term for grandfather. He’s done two campaigns here and recently signed up for another. At a time when budgets are being pruned, and non-Scots recruits at a premium, an overseas signing has to deliver value beyond the white lines of the field. There must be a cultural influence, a driving of standards, an imparting of new knowledge from different environments. Talakai provides this through his quiet savvy, formed by over 100 games in the boiler house at Super Rugby level.

“Everyone here is in such a big rush to make it,” he says. “I always try and be the calm head. I tell them grinding every day is just as important as getting the opportunity and you don’t quite crack it. You can’t cheat the grind. If you rush, you can get in trouble. It’s important once you get there, you stay there.

“It’s all about being super detailed in your job. Communication with the people around you, especially in the scrum. I need my hooker, loosehead and lock to do a certain thing so I’m in the best space to do what I can do. I try and have that influence on the guys, telling them to get feedback, talk to other people about what it looks like and how it feels and then you can really build as a unit.

“I wasn’t blessed to have a long international career but you see young guys here so eager to get into the Scotland camp, you want to give as much help to them so when they get their chance they have an opportunity to have long international careers – even if it’s for Scotland!”

His rhetoric is quiet but compelling. For responsibility sits well on the shoulders of Sam Talakai.