Match Day Q & A - Tatafu Polota-Nau
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the king of team tonga
Match: HSBC Waratahs v Sharks
Date: April 26, 2008
Interview: BEN KIMBER
Images: GETTY IMAGES & Djuro Sen - NSWRU Media Unit
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He’s quietly spoken, handsome and intelligent – the type of guy you’d like your daughter to bring home. But on the Rugby field Tatafu Polota-Nau hits like tank.
The first time Tatafu Polota-Nau was interviewed, as a young CHS schoolboys captain and backrower, the journalist could barely get a word in as the polite and well-groomed young man from Granville South High School asked more questions than he answered.
But his bespectacled soft-spoken demeanour belied a form on the football paddock at that age which meant he was quickly earmarked for bigger things.
As a schoolboy, both on and off the field, Polota-Nau appeared a man amongst boys.
Now, as a Waratah and a Wallaby, and a former IRB U21s Player of the Year and Australian Schoolboys captain, at only 22 years of age Polota-Nau is genuinely starting to come into his own at the highest levels of the game.
In combining strength and skill Polota-Nau is almost without peer in Australian Rugby, and having now mastered the transition from back row to front row and firmly grasped the starting jersey at NSW, the smart money is on this smart kid grabbing the Wallabies No.2 spot for a long time to come.
WARATAHS MATCH PROGRAM: I interviewed you during your schoolboy days and you had firm career plans outside Rugby, are you still studying?
TATAFU POLOTA-NAU: I’m studying Applied Science in IT. The course that I wanted to do after high school I have to do fulltime, so I hope to branch off to that after Rugby. That’s Mechatronic Engineering. Basically making software for robotics. Going through high school all my mates were into the same field as well. We sort of made miniature robotics and we wanted to make a robot and go on Robot Wars but we were under age. I keep up to date on websites on any new technology in the field so I’m still watching what happens there.
WMP: What would you like to do with that degree?
TP-N: I wouldn’t mind working on maybe a smart home. I wouldn’t mind getting into that and making the home more efficient. Maybe I’d make a robotic maid. Thinking about that sort of stuff keeps me interested, as I couldn’t live Rugby 24/7. That’s not me, so I have plenty of other hobbies as well like going for a tenpin bowl, or playing on my bass guitar.
WMP: Do you bowl with your fellow Team Tonga members? Who is in Team Tonga within the Waratahs squad?
TP-N: Who told you about that? All the Tongan boys are in there. Cliffy [Wycliff Palu], Sekope Kepu, Alfi Mafi, Daniel [Halangahu] and even Adam Freier. He’s dark enough to be a Tongan. Actually Adam is almost the founding member. We get teamed up in groups to do weights and stuff which is where it started. It keeps the boys happy. It’s about relaxing together and everyone knows us as Team Tonga. Maybe it’s just a good way of people recognising us rather than trying to say our names and messing it up. We don’t compete as a group in team stuff but we’re pretty good at cards.
WMP: Does your Polynesian heritage have much of an impact on your Rugby lifestyle?
TP-N: It has a huge impact to be honest. People see the recognition of Polynesians who are successful and use that as a role model to get people more motivated. I do get involved in that way in a community sense, mainly through my church community out at Mt Druitt.
WMP: You also have a Team Tonga flat don’t you?
TP-N: Yeah, I flat with Cliffy. He does his thing, I do mine. We probably mainly only see each other out at training more than anything. We do love our Nintendo Wii though. We play a lot of the sports games, mainly Fifa08. We get into it. We don’t have any arguments, mainly because he’s so much bigger than me.
WMP: Speaking of size, have you changed shape significantly since you were converted from a backrower a few years back?
TP-N: Definitely. I definitely feel a lower center of gravity in scrums and so on. And having had crap technique when I did scrummage in school days, and now having to actually use that, it’s a different skill. Especially when you get fatigued and you have to have that habit of scrummaging to get it right every time. I didn’t really do weights before in school so becoming professional really changed my body shape. I definitely feel now, not so much slower, I’m probably more explosive over the first 10 metres or so, but after that I’m like the cookie monster really. I’m about 108kg or so now and I wouldn’t mind dropping a bit lower. I’m glad I’m not up around the 115 mark any more as I can definitely feel the difference.
WMP: Do you think of yourself completely as a front-rower now?
TP-N: There’s always the option of playing backrow if anyone gets injured, but I’m more of a front-rower for sure now I’m glad to say. Back in my school days when I was a backrower I used to bag the front row for not pushing enough. Now I’m always saying ‘Give us some weight, give us some weight’ to the guys behind. I’m still learning as I go, but it’s great to have the experience around me with guys like Benn Robinson, Matt Dunning, Al Baxter and Adam Freier and working on technique and everything.
WMP: Does your backrow background help you with the way the game has been affected by the ELVs?
TP-N: I can definitely feel the difference. With free kicks in particular people are taking more quick taps and keeping the ball in play, or even if they go for the scrum more often it definitely has an impact. I think taking my backrower skills into hooker has helped, so I want to keep those and make sure I’m on to those physical aspects of being a front rower as well. Hopefully I keep a balance in terms of skills and physically performing as a front rower.
WMP: Your throwing to the lineout was an issue early on but you’ve improved that significantly, was that particularly hard to master?
TP-N: Definitely. It’s a different aspect that you definitely don’t do as a backrower. But I’ve had great help from not just the coaching staff from the players like Adam Freier and Dan Vickerman. Their patience and advice to help me execute out on the field. I’d still be struggling without that. There is a lot of work involved in it, but the best work you can do is to work with the team on it and get it right. You can only throw to the paddle so much. Trying to throw to a moving target is different and having a unit session is a lot more accurate in terms of learning to hit the target.
WMP: How has the news of Ewen McKenzie leaving affected the team?
TP-N: It didn’t really have an impact, not because we don’t respect Ewen or anything, but our focus since last November has been on improving our performance from a disappointing year last year. So that’s what we’ve been focussing on, to make sure we step up from last year and make our way to the semis. Even before the news of Ewen leaving that was our No.1 priority, we’re worried about this year not next year at this stage.
TEN ON THE SIDE
- If I wasn’t a Rugby player I’d be ... a Mechatronic Engineer.
- My mates think I look like ... a transvestite. Thanks Adam Freier.
- I think ... Wycliff Palu ... is funny because ... he’s a gentle giant out and about but Once Were Warriors at home.
- The best game I’ve seen is ... the 1994 State of Origin where Mark Coyne scored the winning try in the final minute.
- The last book I read was ... Tietam Brown by Mick Foley.
- In 20 years time I’d like to be ... in a band playing my bass guitar.
- I couldn’t live without ... my laptop.
- My worst habit is ... snoring.
- You wouldn’t know it but I’m good at ... knitting. My grandma’s sister taught me when I was kid. Also sewing.
- The non-sportsman I would most like to put a big hit on is ... Outlaw from Gladiators (Jackson Mullane from Southern Districts).