The Fijian national rugby union team has produced some of the sport’s greatest athletes.
Waisale Serevi and Rupeni Caucaunibuca are two of the elite products that come to mind with their speed and creativity on the pitch, but they’ve been out of the game since 2007 and 2010, respectively.
Enter Jerry Tuwai.
The 33-year-old Tuwai has become one of Fiji’s best stories in the past decade, and he’s set to continue his dominant play on the field at the 2022 HSBC Los Angeles Sevens this weekend.
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Here are five facts about Jerry Tuwai, who will undoubtedly have plenty of eyes on him at Dignity Health Sports Park:
He dropped volleyball for rugby at age 18
Rugby actually was not Tuwai’s first sport – it was volleyball. He grew up in Newtown, a small community in the suburbs near Fiji’s capital, Suva, and eventually dropped volleyball for rugby when he was 18 years old.
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Despite being 5-foot-7, Tuwai impressed with his speed and agility to blow by bigger defenders, which was the start of his journey.
His first club was his hometown team in Newtown
Tuwai’s first experience with rugby came with the Newtown Rugby Club, his hometown team. His coach, Meli Nakalivadra, praised Tuwai’s raw talents on the field, and he later began playing for the Marist Rugby Club’s Sevens team.
The Fijian coaching staff initially disregarded him due to his size
After impressing with Marist in a local game played in Suva, Tuwai began to turn heads within the coaching staff of the Fijian national team. He received a camp invite to train with the team, undoubtedly a huge step up for the Newtown kid. However, he lasted just one camp as the coaching staff deemed him too small to make it in international rugby.
It wasn’t until two years later when Ben Ryan, the head coach at the time, invited him to come back. Ryan helped Tuwai improve in departments where he lacked, including mental skills, and he eventually debuted with the national side in the 2014 Gold Coast Sevens in Australia.
He is one of two Fijians to win World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year
The World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year award goes to the player with the most impressive outings in all sevens competitions that year, especially the World Sevens Series. Samisoni Viriviri was the first Fijian to take home the prize in 2014, and Tuwai later followed suit in 2019. Tuwai was nominated in each of the two years prior, but lost both times to USA’s Perry Baker.
Who is the only rugby player with two Olympic medals?
That’s right, it’s Jerry Tuwai.
Talk about an exclusive category. Rugby debuted in the Olympics in 2016, and it was Tuwai’s Fiji that won the first ever gold medal in the category after thrashing Great Britain 43-7. Then in 2021, Fiji beat New Zealand 21-12 in its defense of the gold medal.
Tuwai was the only Fijian to have played for both squads, so he’s breathing rare air.
