Giant prop with Wallaby bloodlines signs with Fijian Drua for Super Rugby Pacific season

Something must be in the water in Fiji’s Namatakula Village given the rugby stars it churns out— Lote Tuqiri, Nemani Nadolo and the Kuridrani brothers. Now there’s another - Fijian Drua’s latest prop from Marist College Ashgrove.

A young 135kg giant, with Test stars Lote Tuqiri, Tevita Kuridrani, and Nemani Nadolo in his family tree, has decided to leave Australia and chase his Test dream by signing with the Fijian Drua.

Prop Emosi Tuqiri, 21, will be in Fijian colours for the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season when he laces up for the Drua, the newcomers who dazzled with length of the field tries when at their best this year.

Tuqiri, a powerhouse hailing from the rugby breeding grounds of Marist College Ashgrove, had spent the last two years with the Melbourne Rebels and Brisbane club GPS but he is now ready to chase his dreams of shining in Fiji’s colours.

And, there will be extra incentive to shine when the Drua take on the NSW Waratahs, who have signed Tuqiri’s cousin and Fijian International Nemani Nadolo to play on the wing.

The 2023 Rugby World Cup is a goal down the track.

Emosi Tuqiri and his Brisbane-Fijian sevens team family: Nemani Nadolo (top left), Emosi Tuqiri (bottom left), Teti Tela (in the middle behind the young girl in pink) and Tevita Kuridrani (top row, fourth from the left).

“It feels like a full circle moment. Being Fijian in Brisbane, it felt like it was bound to happen having been connected to my Fijian side. To come home and see the boys I played in the Fiji Under 20 National team (in 2019) with, being around family and seeing how much fun they had this year, I’m more excited than anything.

“Since I was born, there’s been such a strong Fijian community in Brisbane. There was church and a Brisbane-Fijian sevens team that played touch everyday. That’s where I found my passion for rugby. I was only three so it’s crazy looking back on the photos where seven of the guys have played professional rugby.

Emosi Tuqiri as a kid (with water bottle in the bottom left) with his Brisbane-Fijian rugby sevens family. Samu Kerevi is in the middle holding the rugby ball and Kris Kuridrani is in the striped blue shirt in the middle.

“In the community alone, there’s guys like Nemani Nadolo, Tevita and Kris Kuradrani, Lote Tuqiri (Tuqiri’s cousins), Teti Tela and Samu Kerevi. They are family to me and other guys like Kerevi are like family to me—not blood, but we grew up and did everything together,” Tuqiri said.

Tuqiri said being the youngest of them all and watching them play made him want nothing more than to play with and against them—a dream slowly becoming a possibility.

The Brisbane-Fiji rugby sevens team. Emoso Tiquri is in the top row, sixth from the left. Seru Uru is on Tuqiri's left while is in the front row fourth from the right and Illaisa Droasese is second from the left in the bottom row.

“Sitting down and putting them side by side. Playing for the Wallabies would be pretty cool having grown up in Brisbane. But, my heart has always been with Fiji. I’m more connected to that side,” Tuqiri said about being part of a pathway to the Fijian international team.

Tuqiri will fit right in with the Drua, not only is he with familiar faces but he will bring valuable experience from his two years with the Melbourne Rebels.

“Coming out of the club scene into the professional system taught me a lot— turning up on time, early, doing the little things, rehab, prehab, diet and most importantly what you do off the field is just as important as on,” Tuqiri said.

And it all started in the beautiful Coral Coast Village of Namatakula where Emoso’s father, Elia, and uncles Lote senior and Tukula - all well known in Brisbane club rugby community for their deeds in the 1970s and 1980s - grew up before moving to Brisbane.

Indeed uncle Lote senior, with his famous left hand always taped and ready for action, was one of the most respected forwards across his career which spanned three decades.

It is also where Kuridani’s father, former Queensland winger Isei Siganiyavi, was born and later discovered by ex-Wallaby hooker and GPS coach Chris Carberry who organised for him to play at GPS in the late 1980s.

Isei Siganiyavi was a fabulous winger for Queensland who helped bring down the then mighty Auckland who were the best provincial side in the world.

Beautiful Namatakula Village, with is fringing coral reef and trickling creek, sure has played its role in delivering Queensland and Fiji rugby royality.