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Saint Tupai of Rangiuru
 Paul
Tupai
Apparently you need evidence of a miracle for Sainthood, and we have
evidence of one such miracle in our image to the right: Paul Tupai
holding the Ranfurly Shield on August 15th 2004 after beating
Auckland. Tupai started the game at number 8 in his 100th game for
the union, and is the most recent centurion for the Union, reaching
the 115 game mark in his beloved colours.
As further evidence of Sainthood for Tupai, his latest destination
after BoP is the Northampton Saints rugby side. Coincidence? We
think not!
We also like this piece
below that was in the Daily Post on Christmas Eve 2005, written by
Craig Tiriana, as a fitting farewell piece:
Goodbye and farewell, old mate
http://www.dailypost.co.nz/localsport/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3666155&thesection=localsport&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=
24.12.2005
For 27 years Paul Tupai has bled for
his team-mates. Daily Post sports
editor CRAIG TIRIANA catches up with
the man nicknamed "Toops" as he
prepares to move to Europe for at
least two more years of the same.
It's easy to bandy around words like
loyalty and commitment.
It's far harder to pull off the
actions associated with the words.
But that's not the case for Paul "Toops"
Tupai, the Rotorua born-and-bred
Steamer who played his last game in
his treasured blue and gold jumper
this year when the Bay signed off
the 2005 NPC rugby season by beating
Northland 51-3.
The 31-year-old utility forward left
his mark.
Coming off the bench for the final
20 minutes, he scored a bullocking
try and kicked his only conversion
in 115 caps.
Tupai's representative career
started when he was 19, and
stretched the Bay's amateur second
division and first division
professional times.
He finished eighth on the all-time
list of Bay of Plenty appearances,
confirming his durability,
dependability and commitment to a
union, which runs through his veins
and pumps his willing heart.
Bay of Plenty rugby was, and is,
simple for Tupai - it's about living
and dying for the cause.
There are no backward steps and
there is only one way to be.
"You've got to be loyal, loyalty
takes you a long way. At the end of
the day, if you start chasing things
for money or personally, you've lost
that loyalty ... My loyalty to
someone is more than anything you
can buy," a gravelly voiced Tupai
says, as he's readying to leave for
England and a two-and-a-half year
stint at Northampton.
Tupai hopes to be on the field for
the Saints on New Year's Day and
he's happy to head overseas, having
given unwavering service to Bay of
Plenty.
It's something not all of his former
teammates had given in Tupai's eyes.
"That's something I've felt hard for
the Bay [of Plenty] - people who
just come here to use us as that
stepping stone and then they leave
...
"I found that hard and was happy to
finish with the Bay - I don't know
whether they wanted me - but I had
had enough," he said.
If Tupai sounds strongly opposed to
rugby's modern-day professional
mercenaries, he has vented his
frustration on more than one former
teammate turning out for a different
province - punishment for rugby
treason on behalf of the jersey.
"I've always been a Bay man and the
colours will always run in my blood
and it's a jersey that I'll treasure
for the rest of my life. I just
didn't like it how guys came in and
wore the jersey, threw it on the
floor and walked back out.
"To them it was just another team
and they were just here because they
were looking for money. They didn't
really have the same Bay attachment.
"There's guys in the Bay who will
live and die for the Bay, guys like
Willy Clark and Damon Kaui. It will
always run in their blood.
"They're staunch Bay, like the Joe
Tauiwis, Warwick Morehus ... I think
that's something that will slowly go
out the door over time.
"My great hope for 100 games is
Tanerau Latimer. He said to me one
night, 'I'll get my hundred games
for you Toops'."
When Tupai gets to Northampton it
will be the latest twist in a career
he launched as a barefooted
four-year-old in Mamaku and
continued at Western Heights High
School, Bay of Plenty age groups and
the Ngongotaha and Rangiuru clubs.
He's only played for two clubs.
Ngongotaha gave him his start in the
game and he went to Rangiuru to play
with his great mates Kaui - the most
talented footballer Tupai says he
played with - and Clarke.
Tupai has earned a reputation over
the years as being a player who puts
everything on the line for his team.
Rangiuru coach Bob Moorehead has
seen it many times.
"He's the ultimate team man. I've
never seen someone so keen on laying
his body on the line for his club
and his province. He'd let himself
be run over by a bus if he thought
it would help his teammates in some
way."
It's no secret Tupai is one of the
toughest and most unbending
footballers. But he has sailed close
to the wind, earning appearances
before the Bay of Plenty and New
Zealand judicial panels and
suffering some playless days while
he was learning his craft.
When you ask Tupai which team he's
liked beating the most, without a
blink his answer is DS Waikato.
Tupai wears the enforcer badge like
an old-style Western sheriff, his
role to ensure law and order in his
patch, and he's dished out and
received rugby's version of street
justice with honour.
He's had to tone it down, as rugby
has sought to clean up the murky
goings on at ruck and maul time.
"I knew I had to tone it down when
the union said I'd have to start
paying for my own flights [to
Wellington] and lawyer," he laughs.
One of Tupai's biggest supporters -
and critics - is his mother Mary.
"She always tells me to control my
aggression." Tupai's father Eddie
offers a different spin. "That's the
way boy," he would tell his son.
Tupai reckons he picked up his
physical style in Rotorua, playing
in the region's club rugby, which he
still describes as the hardest
football he's encountered.
"It's faster at NPC, but the most
physical games I've played were
Ngongotaha against Waikite," he
remembers.
Tupai said those encounters were
what made him the player he is.
He's in his element when the going
gets tough and singles out former
club rival Waikite's Charles Te
Kowhai as one of the hardest
opponents.
Former Bay of Plenty prop Barry
Uerata gets the nod as the player
most likely to put fear into the
opposition.
"Everyone used to be looking out for
him."
Tupai had two years with Ngongotaha
when he left Western Heights High
School. They won the Baywide twice
under Joe Tuhakaraina's tutelage and
Tupai met his greatest rugby
influence, the late New Zealand
Sevens and Bay representative Joe
Tauiwi.
"He taught me a lot - to be humble,
don't forget where you come from and
not to read too much in the papers."
When it comes to career highlights,
there have been many for Tupai.
Among them was the privilege of
raising the Ranfurly Shield up after
his 100th game for the Bay during
the 2004 NPC. Beating Nelson Bays to
get out of Division two was another.
The latest was running out at
Rotorua International Stadium - his
favourite ground - in front of a
full house to open this year's Lions
tour.
Manu Samoa has provided an
unexpected twilight, with six tests,
including one at a packed Twickenham.
There have also been a few low
points, the worst coming when
Auckland scored a last second try to
retain the Ranfurly Shield in the
late 1990s. A more recent
disappointment was seeing first five
Glen Jackson and assistant coach Joe
Schmidt leave the Bay.
"We [Bay of Plenty Rugby Union]
should've have mortgaged the house
to keep them," he says.
Although Tupai is headed for England
with his family, wife Nadine and
children Leah and Connor, he will be
back.
Rotorua is home and he's keen to put
something back into the community
that's helped and supported him
during his impressive career.
He doesn't see coaching as his
forte, but believes he's learned
plenty over the years to be a pretty
good manager.
"I'd be a players' manager, for the
players, someone they could confide
in without worrying I'd be telling
someone else."
Tupai is a supporter of Baywide club
rugby.
He believes the union needs to
strengthen the base by assisting
club structures that would encourage
representative players to be shared
around, rather than ending up in a
couple of superclubs as happens now.
And they have to hold on to good
grass-roots people.
"It's hard to believe they would let
a good club man like [former Bay
rugby operations manager] Toni
Marriner go. He's someone who knew
grass-roots rugby in the Bay."
Just like Toops.
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