Tupou having a breakout year in lockdown

Taniela Tupou was completely taken aback by the suggestion that he may already be one of the best tighthead props in world rugby.

Taniela Tupou is a powerful scrummager but is arguably more damaging in open play Picture: Getty Images

Taniela Tupou was completely taken aback by the suggestion that he may already be one of the best tighthead props in world rugby, with the potential to finish his career at No 1.

His brow furrowed when the idea was put to him. It is not how he thinks of himself. It is not something he ever thinks about.

“I’m happy and when I am happy I just play my game and if I happen to be one of the best in the world then I am, but it is not something I am thinking about,” the 24-year-old Queensland Reds and Wallabies prop told The Australian. “I just focus on playing well for the Reds. Obviously I also want to be playing for the Wallabies. It would be nice to be seen as one of the best in the world but it is not something I have ever striven for.”

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This year could well carry an asterisk in global rugby, a year in which the only Tests played anywhere in the world might be the Bledisloe Cup series, and even that is not guaranteed. So Tupou has picked an exceedingly odd year to be having a breakthrough season.

Props who weigh in at 135kg and bench press 200kg are eye-catching at the best of times. Props with the speed of an outside back are even rarer. Rarest of all is a tighthead with an engine that enables him to chase down a 70m Reds breakout in the last minute before halftime against the Brumbies and come thundering onto the pass straight from the ruck. And to keep that up for an unheard of 80 minutes, during which time he has scrummed against two Test looseheads, Scott Sio and James Slipper.

Was it really only six years ago that Tupou was “discovered”, when footage of him scoring three astonishing long-range tries for Sacred Heart College in Auckland went viral? The rugby world was mesmerised. One posted that Tupou reminded him of another player of Tongan heritage. A certain Jonah Lomu.

Quade Cooper sent him a text. “Holy shit,” exclaimed the young Tupou. “Quade Cooper! I forwarded the text to all my friends. I put it up on Facebook.”

Cooper may not know it but Tupou even changed his Facebook name to … you guessed it. When the Reds came to Auckland on their way to Wellington to play the Hurricanes, Tupou caught a bus and a train to the airport to see his idol. Cannily, the Reds flew him to Brisbane for a Brisbane City-Queensland Country NRC match in September 2014. Almost inevitably, he became a Red.

Ironically, it was Slipper, then the Queensland captain, who made Tupou aware he was something special. “He said ‘I don’t know how but you are so strong’ and I thought he was only saying that because I am so big. But as I got older, I actually realised I am blessed. I don’t know how I can carry my weight, to be honest. I’m f..king heavy, mate,” he laughed.

He fought two epic battles in Canberra last weekend. Against Sio in the first half. Against Slipper in the second. He felt it all broke even against Sio but managed to entice a single penalty from referee Nic Berry against Slipper in the second.

They laughed about it afterwards, Tupou because he got the penalty, Slipper because the Brumbies won the match. But the respect is just enormous. “I had to prove myself against him,” Tupou explained. “He’s like a big brother to me.”

Soon, if not already, other props will measure themselves against the ‘Tongan Thor’.