Solomone Kata discovered to play rugby union even earlier than he had a ball to play it with on the volcanic island he grew up on.
Since utilizing rugby to flee day by day chores on Niuafoʻou – the northern most island within the kingdom of Tonga, within the southern Pacific Ocean – Leicester Tigers’ highly effective winger-turned-centre Kata has lived a couple of totally different sporting careers already.
He began as a Tongan schoolboy, chasing a life-changing rugby scholarship in New Zealand, who then went on to play rugby league internationally for his adopted nation earlier than happening to develop into a dual-code Tonga worldwide.
Dan McKellar performed a pivotal function in bringing the 29-year-old again to rugby union, signing him from NRL facet Melbourne Storm when he was ACT Brumbies boss in 2020, and the Australian coach made Kata one of many first gamers he introduced in after getting the Tigers job in February.
“I used to be grateful to Dan,” Kata instructed BBC Radio Leicester.
“The rationale I got here again [to rugby union] was as a result of at the back of my head I additionally wished to play rugby at a excessive degree.”
‘A water bottle for a ball’
Two tries on his European Champions Cup debut for Leicester Tigers, of their come-from-behind win towards Stormers on Sunday, was the newest proof that he has completed precisely that.
He has already scored three tries for Tigers this season, having managed 5 in 20 appearances for Exeter Chiefs in his solely earlier season within the English Premiership final time period.
His robust begin at Mattioli Woods Welford Highway comes after coming back from the World Cup in France.
And it was earlier than that event, when Kata made a visit again to the distant island the place he was raised, that he paused to understand how a lot he has already achieved within the recreation.
“I grew up on an island with no rugby balls to play with or something,” he stated.
“It is the place I began, on the parks there taking part in with a bottle of water as a result of we did not have balls again then.
“It’s a type of reminiscences that takes me again to the place I began with nothing, and also you see the place I’m now – I am fairly grateful.
“Once I began, I did not know something about rugby, it was only for enjoyable.
“Usually, rising up in Tonga, in case you are a boy you need to do the cooking outdoors, and I had to assist my outdated man on the farm, however I at all times ran away from that. I ran to the rugby area and located one thing to play with and ran round with that.”
It was not till one among his older brothers left the island for the mainland that Kata was gifted a ball for the primary time.
By the point he was a teen, he earned a scholarship to Auckland’s Sacred Hearts Faculty, and graduating from there noticed him change codes to rugby league with the New Zealand Warriors.
“Like every child from the islands it was an enormous alternative for me on the time, despite the fact that I did not know league,” he stated.
“I threw myself in there and did good for seven years.”
His time with the Warriors ended, earlier than an unsuccessful spell with the Storm led to his transfer again to rugby union with McKellar’s Brumbies.
It was there that Kata needed to relearn learn how to play the 15-man recreation with a job on the wing, the place he bought himself again on top of things.
“Dan referred to as me again from league and I performed wing for 2 years with Brumbies, and suppose on the time it was the correct selection,” Kata stated.
“I performed rugby till highschool and it was a really totally different recreation to Tremendous Rugby, and even high-level rugby.
“He put me on the wing to simply run, get the ball and never have to consider passing and stuff like that.
“If I needed to choose a place, it might be centres greater than wing now. That’s what my recreation relies on, the bodily facet of me in assault.
“I get my hand on the ball extra, and simply do my finest.”
