Tevita Tatafu will honor her first cap this Saturday, November 9 with the XV of France. The right pillar of Aviron Bayonnais has experienced meteoric progress since his arrival in the Basque Country from his native Tonga five years ago. From Crabos to pro, Tevita has been surrounded. He has also progressed, particularly in closed scrum. Pierre Navarron, director of amateur rugby at Aviron, and then junior coach, remembers the arrival of Tevita Tatafu.
France Bleu Pays Basque: How did Tevita Tatafu's arrival at Rowing go?
Pierre Navarron : His arrival was his uncle Toma Taufa, who was a player on the professional team at the time, under the orders of Yannick Bru, who spoke about it, who sent some videos. This is how contact was established and the player came to Bayonne.
He arrived in Bayonne at 17. When you first saw it, did you immediately know it was a phenomenon?
A natural strength, a power, a speed which was surprising for a player of his size… This is what we can see today when he evolves, that is to say this ability to penetrate defenses opposing forces, to overthrow, to progress in a very direct direction. He is truly an impact player with unusual speed for a player of this size.
“He had to work a lot in the scrum”
From the Crabos years to today, what has been its progression?
There is this ability to be able to really cross clearly above all the other players that he could have had around him at that time. But his progression was in scrum. It is at the scrum level that his progress has been the clearest since he arrived. He was really in difficulty, because he played seven or ten in Tonga, and did few scrums. The effort has been made at this level to be able to play with fifteen players and evolve at the highest level. He was forced to work a lot in the scrum. He is an intelligent boy who sets goals and achieves them.
Tevita also owes its rapid progress to its extraordinary capacity…
He is aware of his abilities and he has hands. He makes few hand mistakes and he has the ability to pass or knock down the opponent who tries to tackle him… There are often several of them.
“He’s always crazy, all the time!”
In the Basque Country, despite his family distance, Tevita Tatafu quickly integrated.
We had a kid who was always crazy, all the time, all the time…. I call him mischievous. He's a little stupid, he laughs, he laughs, even if he didn't make himself understood very well because he spoke very little English, a lot in Tongan, so it was a bit complicated here. Afterwards, he was taken care of by Burno Patru, a leader of Rowing. Tevita lived with him for two years. Gradually, he was able to evolve with the family. He made himself understood using Google translate. He imbibed, he became part of the family. Besides, he calls Bruno Patry “her dad from France”.
For him there was the need to live five years in France to be eligible for the XV of France. William Servat explained this week that Tevita had gone from 158 to 140 kilos to perform at the highest level. Is this one of the biggest difficulties for this player to hope to break through at international level?
I think that today, he is almost at his ideal weight, even if he can lose a little more. He will never be a 110 kilo player. He will always be over 130, 135 kilos. He has this Ilian morphology like an Atonio who has this raw strength, this significant mass which gives him his strength and his appeal. To last a match for a little more than 50 minutes, he may need to weigh between 135, 140 kilos, but I think that is his ideal weight. Obviously, as William Servat said, at 158 kilos, it was too much.
For you, for coaches, educators, managers, what does this selection represent?
It's a source of pride because we saw him arrive very frustrated at the rugby level, particularly at XV with this particularity of the pillar position. Seeing him today arrive at the highest international level is a source of pride for all those who were able to work with him and to see that the kid has not changed from what he was when he arrived. I knew from Bruno Patry that he too was very proud to be there. It is very well accepted at the level of the French team, the players, the managers. He feels completely at ease. Tevita takes great pride in representing France and being able to play for France at international level.
