New Caledonia, a breeding ground for tricolor rugby

The pictures went around the planet Ovalie. After France’s 15th victory over New Zealand during the Autumn Tour, on November 20, 2021, New Caledonian prostitute Beto Mofaka, author of two attempts during the meeting, made a turn of honor at the Stade de France, the tricolor flag at arm’s length. The match player-elect, Beto Mofaka, could not hold back his tears and emotion, in front of the France 2 microphone, thinking of his father, who died in 2018, a staunch supporter of the All Blacks.

The young prostitute from Stade Toulouse, who will once again be part of the Blues facing Scotland on Saturday 26 February during the third day of the Six Nations Championship, is today a moto character for a group of islanders who play for clubs and national rugby teams: Fotonian Yoram Movana, appears on Example, alongside him in the 15th of France, while Kanak Yulin Yengu plays in the French rugby team Sevens.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of Pacific islanders have migrated to the capital in hopes of getting a job in sports. This movement began in the early 1990s, and the pioneers were called Willy Tauvevinua and Abraham Tolovoa, a cousin of the first.

Both are part of the Wallisian and Futunian community of more than 20,000 New Caledonia citizens – more than the number of people living in their original lands – and make up the ethnic group most present in New Caledonia rugby. Wallis and Futuna have always maintained cultural and linguistic links with the neighboring islands of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, which are also rugby grounds.

‘Huge potential’

Willie Tauvivinoa, “Mammoth Wallis”, is a legend in the Pacific Islands. This former third streak, The Force of Nature and a Tough Over Evil, to be joined later by his brothers, Jean-Jacques and Jean-Claude, achieved the great Club Grenoble hours of the 1990s.

Taofifenua’s streak continues in the Top 14 and in the national team, with Sébastien and Romain at LOU, youngest Kilian at Perpignan, Filimo at Aviron Bayonnais and Donovan at Racing 92, who has just been called up by the coach. From France, Fabien Galthe, for the Six Nations Championship.

Abraham Tolouvois, arrived in 1991 in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, from Mont d’Or, on the outskirts of Noumea. “We often traveled to New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji or Samoa, but I wanted to try another game of rugby.He says. I had to convince my father. »

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