Biography

Born in Kawakawa, New Zealand, Veainu completed his education at St. Andrew’s College in Christchurch where he was made 1st XV captain in his final year. 

During his schooling, he worked his way through the age groups of Canterbury RFC’s squads, before being rewarded with an appearance in the New Zealand U20s World Cup in 2010, where he scored 5 tries, including a hat-trick in the final. Telusa got his call up to the Canterbury first team squad and went on to make 34 appearances and scoring 21 tries.

In 2012, he left his boyhood club and bounced around the league, representing Highlanders, Hawke’s Bay and Crusaders, contributing positively wherever he went. Veainu then hopped over the Tasman Sea to play for Melbourne Rising (then Rebels), where he almost managed to score as many tries as games.

In 2015, he relocated to England and joined Leicester Tigers, where he really began to make a name for himself and stunned the Premiership crowds. Playing for the Midlands side 80 times and scoring a brilliant 32 tries, he became a fan favourite during his 5-year tenure, and even helped the squad lift the Anglo-Welsh Cup in the 2016/17 season.

Internationally, Telusa switched his professional playing nationality to Tongan, as he was selected for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Since then he has played 12 times for the ‘Sea Eagles’ scoring 8 times, and was even selected in the 2019 World Cup Squad, in which he was Tonga’s top try-scorer.

Ahead of the 2020/21 season, Telusa hopped across the Channel this time and joined Stade Français. He remained a consistent and dependent player for the French side, and managed to reach double figure tries, scoring 10 during his 3 years in the capital.

Most recently, he joined Knights having spent last season with Sale Sharks, but never managed to consistently find a spot, but we hope this year we can assure Telusa more game time, and he can pass on his wisdom and wicked step to our other players.