Slimmed-down Uini Atonio set to have big impact for France

Most biographies of Uini Atonio say his official weight is 155kg, or 24st 6lbs. According to French sources, that was his weight when he pitched up with the rest of the French squad on July 6th for their pre-season build-up, but he has since trimmed down to about 143kg. Either way, he's still the heaviest player at the World Cup.

He's also reckoned to be the second biggest player in the history of Test rugby after Fijian Bill Cavubati, and the bad news for Ireland, and especially Jack McGrath and/or Cian Healy, is that Atonio looks set to be on the bench for this Sunday's Pool D decider.

Vincent Debaty, hitherto the replacement loosehead behind Eddy Ben Arous, was the only French player unable to train at their Vale of Glamorgan base yesterday due to a heavily strapped thigh muscle injury, and is reckoned to have only a 35 per cent chance of being fit for the group finale. This leaves France with one loosehead and three tightheads, with starting tighthead Rabah Slimani perhaps obliged to cover both sides.

The description “remplacement de l’impact’ could have been coined with Atonio in mind. He made his first Test start in the group win over Romania, after his previous nine caps had come off the bench. He was part of the heavyweight reinforcements which Philippe Saint-André turned to in the Aviva Stadium last February – as part of a new frontrow for the last half-hour – and Atonio’s one-handed basketball pass featured in the build-up to Romain Taofifenua’s try. This is typical of the ball-playing skills of a player who was a number eight from the age of five to 18, by which stage he simply had become too big for anywhere but prop.

Hit the wall

This time four years ago, Atonio was watching the 2011 World Cup in his native New Zealand. Even though the son of Samoan parents from Timaru had agreed to join La Rochelle, then in the ProD2, he had yet to set foot in the country he never expected to represent until a couple of years ago.

Atonio had attended the famed rugby school Wesley College on the outskirts of Auckland, which numbers Jonah Lomu and Sitiveni Sivivatu amongst its celebrated alumni, and represented Samoa at the 2009 World Junior Championships as well as playing a couple of years with Counties Manukau. Whereupon his career hit a wall; not that a wall would stand much chance against him.

“I lost a contract with Counties Manako. I just wasn’t cutting the slack and I was working on the side as well as playing rugby,” he explains of balancing rugby with landscaping.

“I had a good job so I didn’t really take it seriously until my contract with Counties got terminated. So I looked at other options and France was one of them. Second division. I was like ‘if it is bringing in the money and it is looking after my family then that is good’.”

Even when playing for France was first mooted he didn’t take the option seriously. “I actually mentioned it as a joke in front of the media, maybe two or three years ago. I was playing one or two good games and they were like ‘one day you could play for the French, would you?’ I was like ‘I would love to play for France’, but it was never in my mind.

“I was just playing for my club back home and playing some games. We were in the second division so it was never going to be an option for me to play for the French team until we came up to Top 14 in 2012. It was around there.”

Biggest player

Yet here he is, two years later, with ten caps for France and a place in their World Cup squad, thus making him the biggest player in the tournament.

It’s been a remarkable journey, and one which he outlined in his easy-going, softly-spoken, ever-grinning style yesterday. He admitted when he first arrived he found life tough.

“Because everyone spoke French,” he said, grinning, “and as you guys know, French is a hard language to understand. You don’t know if they are angry with you because they are speaking really fast and really loud. The experience was good; it is different from New Zealand and a different type of rugby.”

But within a year the La Rochelle coach Patrice Collazzo made him captain. “After one of the games when we lost to one of the last teams (Albi), I just said a speech after the game, in English as well. I think everyone just looked at me and thought ‘what the hell is he talking about?’ After that game the coach said he thought I was a good captain. That sounded good.”

He has since had the La Rochelle crest tattooed onto his left bicep, along with two wings on his back, and so you believe him when he says: “Every time I put the French jersey on there’s always pride in the jersey, even if it’s for my club or the country. Of course that’s going to be bigger but you always have pride in whatever colour you’re wearing.”