In his first two Premier Rugby matches, Sione Va’enuku was a box office hit. An attempt on his debut in the league for Saracens against Sala. Early assist to Noah Caluori on a breakaway Bristol on Saturday. Performances infused with rib-cracking defensive tackle and flourishes of class on the ball.
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The zeal should not surprise anyone. Va’enuku was obsessed with the union and the alliance as a kid growing up on the central coast of Australia. At the age of 14, he was excluded from the selection by age after collecting too many yellow cards for high tackles. There were weekends when he would play four matches under two rugby rules. For all the nonsense surrounding Brendan Venter’s job, passion and aggression are two traits that greatly appeal to the returning Saracens supremo.
Va’enuku is only too aware of the magnitude of his opportunity and is fully determined to seize it. A small miracle. He played for Ampthill in the Championship last season. Before that, a failed trial with Northampton Saints paid their way from Australia in the East Midlands and then paid for his British visa to stay in England. As recently as six years ago, he was racing on a brutal hamster wheel; emptying bins on the streets of Sydney in the wee hours, then training with the Roosters to pursue his dreams of playing in the NRL.
“I was never great at school; I just wanted to play football,” Va’enuku says. “There would be times when I would go to work, play union on Saturday, thirds, seconds and firsts, then league on Sundays. All I cared about was playing football.
“If I didn’t want to stay at school, I had to get a job. At 16 I was a ‘scaffold’ (a worker on scaffolding), I went to the carpentry trade, but I had to stop that when I moved into one of the Petlovac houses. Then I was a ‘garbomen’ from 17 to 20 years old.
“It was hard but it was what I had to do. There was no other option for me. I had to either play rugby and work or not play rugby and work. It was hard to come home at 9pm and then get up at 3.30am to go to work, but I couldn’t just not go to work or not go to training.”
Va’enuk does not have to look far for role models. His father, Unuoi, is a stocky Tongan who played in the 1995 World Cup straight out of school. Unuoi soon turned 19 and ended up at center playing against the late Scott Hastings in the pool match against Scotland.
My dad was one of the youngest he ever played for Tonga at the World Cup in 1995. After that he signed a contract with the Penrith Panthers in training, but he wanted it quite a bit and ran away from that environment.
“My old man still works two jobs,” says Va’enuku. “On Friday and Saturday nights, he builds fire doors and does security.
“He was one of the youngest ever to play for Tonga in 1995. After that he signed with Penrith Panthers in training but he got quite homesick and ran away from that environment and ended up with some other Tongans in Manly. He was staying in this granny flat with Wycliffe Palu down in Dee Why.”
Life in an elite rugby environment was too much for the teenage Unuoi, but his name and his exploits still command respect. Va’enuku is supported in England his friends Kenny Fisilau, Greg’s father, and Viliame Ma’asi, dad Sale center Rekeiti Ma’asi-White. Va’enuku spends Christmas with the Fisilaus and considers them extended family.
“Everybody knows my dad or knows who he is. I think without those guys, Greg and ‘Rekeis,’ who text me whenever they have time to just check in, I’d probably go home.”
Another old mate, Salesi Ma’afu, set up Va’enuku when he came to Northampton in September 2024. He was 24 but not well travelled. There were shades of Unuoi’s own experience in how Wa’enuku, who is qualified in English through his mother Kate’s family, became with the Prem heavyweights, and the emotions that gripped him when he landed. He played one NRL prep game for the Roosters but struggled to break into their first team. He returned to the union, and almost immediately, he parachuted into the squad of internationals. When he came to Saints, he struggled to feel a sense of belonging, almost as if he didn’t deserve his place in such high society.
“I played a trial match for my local rugby team and this agent, Steff Collins, played in that match. He came and met my parents and said he would try to get me to the UK. We went through those meetings, had a Zoom call with Sam Vesty and Phil Dowson, and they said they were happy to get me over.
“When I got there, I kind of didn’t put all my eggs in the basket. I didn’t try as hard as I should have. There was a bit of self-sabotage. There were nerves. I was homesick. It was the first time I’d been properly away from my family. I didn’t have Fisilaus or the Ma’asi-Whites to help me. And I felt like he was helping me in the right direction. Too good to be true. I went from playing fifth-grade local rugby to three months later, rubbing shoulders with guys like Finn Smith and Rory Hutchinson.
“The fact that they let me go made me realize how much I really wanted it. I was this close to being with them.”
The next few months were busy. Some advised Va’enuku to return to Australia. He felt different. Even if staying in England meant swallowing a large part of his life savings.
I broke my face in the first preseason game the following year. I broke my cheekbone in three places so I missed nine or 10 games.
“I really wanted to stay. It was already the middle of the Championship season, I was just lucky that Ampthill said they would bring me in and give me a chance. I had savings from when I was a garbo man and I used that to pay for my visa. It was AUD 14,000 (about £7,000) and I had to go home first.
“I came back on Friday, Ampthill played Ealing on Saturday and I went to watch. They got 92-0 and I was sitting there thinking ‘I’m in for a long year’.”
Ampthill, nicknamed ‘The Mafia’, are a rustic old outfit; ‘a real rugby club’. The mob gave Va’enuku two things: a sense of community and a chance to show off.
“That club is a huge family. You go to battle, you fight to go to training at 6.30 in the freezing cold, no one is better than anyone else, we are all fighting on the same muddy fields. I didn’t have much money to book flights home at the end of the year, and they put in my contract that they will be paid.”
Va’enuku’s first season at Dillingham Park was a torturous one. The English game and English weather were different. Levels were raised as Ampthill faced top opposition in the Prem Cup.
“I didn’t have the best year. The first game was against me Bath and I was run over, all the guys were smashing me. I grew into it. Most of the season I played on the wing, which was a struggle.
“A couple of guys made it easy – Tino Mapapalagi, who’s also Tongan, and James Johnston, who played for Samoa. They’re senior bosses who’ve played in Prema or France, and they’ve played for their countries. They just said ‘hang on mate, all it takes is a few games to bond and you don’t know where you could be’.”
Where Va’enuku first landed was in the hospital for an x-ray.
“I actually broke my face in the first pre-season game the following year. I cracked my cheekbone in three places so I missed nine or 10 games. It was time to not play rugby or think about it. I came home that year and still played league and union between our championship seasons, so I needed that break.
“When I had that injury break and came back, I had more of an idea of what a champion is and what the team needs from me.”
I got clean for the first time in my life. The number eight, Jacques Vermeulen, flashed me on one of the lines and a chill ran through my body. I’ve never been hit like that.
Ten tries in 20 Championship games later, Va’enuku was Ampthill’s player of the year. And then there was Saracen. The players he once admired from the other side of the world – Jamie George, Owen Farrell, Elliot Daly – were now teammates.
“The coaching staff here made me feel welcome, and they wanted me to grow as a person,” he says.
The Mancunian opposition to Va’enuku’s Prem Arch was beastly. Playing in his favored inside center position, Va’enuku completed a fine team effort. His mother and younger brother Tevita, who moved to England with ambitious fourth division player Oundle, were in the audience. Va’enuku arrived and drove. He was then hit by a South African mallet.
“I got clean for the first time in my life. The number eight, Jacques Vermeulen, lit me up from one of the lines and I went through the body. I’ve never been hit like that.”
“It was a good experience for me too. I was quite nervous. It was good that my mum and brother were there.”
In the background, with the World Cup less than a year away, international talk is already bubbling up. Tonga made his interest known and would allow Va’enuku to follow in his father’s footsteps. He is also eligible for Australia and England, should his game develop enough to move either set-up. It seems a long way off after just two matches, but Va’enuku has the skill and mindset to turn influential heads.
“I spoke to the Tongan coach. I just told him I want to worry about next year and not think too much about it. But I also said there’s an opportunity to come through England, as England A, and I’d take it with both hands. I’m not rushing anything, just trying to play week in week out.”
From scaffy to garbo-man, ambitious Rooster to canine Saracen wolf pack, Va’enuku has a habit of making things happen.
