Va'aiga Tuigamala & Joeli Vidiri
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Dammit really? He'd be barely in his 50s. Remember him absolutely destroying it for the Colts in 89. Scored 4 if I think. Recall the joke that Grizz was only selecting Wright because he couldn't pronounce Inga's name!
He was an absolute beast in 92-93 and I was gutted when he went to League.
Fark me, with Jonah, Jerry and now Inga, the Heaven First XV is looking bloody strong these days.
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I had Inga in junior teams for 4 years from U12 to U15 before he went straight into the Kelston 1st xv (Apollo Perelini was also with us in that team). Inga mostly played openside flanker or Halfback for us as the more ball he got the more devastating he was for the opposition. He would often score multiple tries in a game. Sometimes he would open a team up with a clear run to the line but then head back to the traffic looking for more players to beat. When he got selected for the All Blacks we were invited to a celebration event at his local church. It was huge with amazing performances from Samoan and Tongan cultural groups and Church Choirs. Inga grew up in an overcrowded house brought up by his mom and older brother Silika, as their father died when he was very young. When he got the Wigan offer Inga asked myself and my co-coach, who knew him from very young, for advice as he was in turmoil about the decision. At that time he and his partner were living in his moms garage and they had little money. I think the offer was five hundred thousand dollars for three seasons and was an obvious choice but he still found it hard to make leaving family and the game he loved, but he did so and was able to eventually buy his Mother a house.
Rarely without a smile on his face, you would struggle to meet a more cheerful, kinder human than Inga the winger.
Finally a story I was told about him in his under 11 team. Inga was playing openside flanker and before a game his coach told him his job was to "kill the first five". Inga left his team huddle and went over to the opposition coach and asked who their first five was? When the coach pointed him out Inga approached the boy and said "I'm going to Kill you" before trotting back to his own team, then gave the kid a cheerful wave from the tail of the first lineout.
RIP to the Big Black Bus (what the French papers called him back in the day). -
@rancid-schnitzel said in Va'aiga Tuigamala:
Dammit really? He'd be barely in his 50s. Remember him absolutely destroying it for the Colts in 89. Scored 4 if I think. Recall the joke that Grizz was only selecting Wright because he couldn't pronounce Inga's name!
He was an absolute beast in 92-93 and I was gutted when he went to League.
Fark me, with Jonah, Jerry and now Inga, the Heaven First XV is looking bloody strong these days.
Not to mention Lauaki off the bench.
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Interview from 2020 -
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From NZ Herald.
For some reason I can't post the link.
Tuigamala's cause of death has not yet been confirmed - he was about to launch a new video series in which he talks openly about his health struggles, including being diagnosed last year with type 2 diabetes.
"The reality was, I was facing an early graveyard," Tuigamala says in a preview video of the series, Project ODICE (obesity diabetes intervention champion evangelist). "And when I say early grave, my father died at the age of 48 from a stroke. He wasn't obese, but he had a stroke and died and left 15 children to my mum to look after.
"I suppose for me, I just don't want to be another statistic. Hence the reason ODICE was born. The reality is unfortunately I've been diagnosed with type two diabetes recently. I'm obese as you can see. High blood pressure, I had a stroke about nine years ago. I've really - in rugby terms - just dropped the ball."
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Loved watching him play, that huge smile.
RIP Big man.
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Shit news, RIP Inga.
