Samisoni Taukei'aho: from Tonga's under 15 captain to two tries on his All Blacks debut

In 2013 a teenage hooker captained Tonga's under 15 team on a tour of New Zealand, and the next year he was in Hamilton on a rugby scholarship. Eight years later Samisoni Taukei'aho scored two tries on his All Blacks debut, on his home ground, and in 2022 he scored seven Test tries, equalling the record for an All Blacks forward in a calendar year. He has played 46 Tests and 121 games for the Chiefs, and come back from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

From Tonga to Hamilton

Samisoni Frank Simpson Taukei'aho was born in Tongatapu, Tonga, on 8 August 1997. He was first noticed in New Zealand in 2013, when he toured the country as captain of Tonga's under 15 side and impressed the scouts watching. The reward was a rugby scholarship to St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton, and in 2014 he left home to start Year 12 there.

The Waikato Times visited him that August, in his first season in New Zealand. He was already in the St Paul's First XV, had been to a Chiefs under 18 camp and had been nominated for the New Zealand Secondary Schools team. He had also played for a Chiefs age-grade side against the Blues and found out how big the opposition could be. "They were some pretty big boys," he said, grinning.

He was serious about the details of the job. He kept his own lineout throwing statistics, around 80 to 85 per cent in games he said, and took them to his coaches for feedback, and he practised his throwing by aiming at the box above a basketball hoop after training. His favourite team was the Chiefs, and his idols were two hookers from elsewhere: Corey Flynn and Dane Coles. He liked the way Coles ran the ball and that he had "a bit of mongrel in him".

St Paul's and New Zealand Schools

St Paul's won the Central North Island competition unbeaten in both his years there, and in 2015 they reached the semi-finals of the Chiefs Cup. That September he was one of 53 players at a national development camp. He was first named in the New Zealand Barbarians schools squad, and on the strength of his performances was moved up into New Zealand Schools, who played Samoa Schools, Australian Barbarians Schools and Australia Schools in Brisbane at the end of the month. His goal, the school reported, was to play for the Chiefs and the All Blacks.

Waikato and the Chiefs

The NZ Rugby Museum lists his club as Fraser Tech. He made his first-class debut for Waikato in 2016, in a successful Ranfurly Shield defence against Thames Valley, and by 2023 he had played 44 games for the province and scored 20 tries. The following year, 2017, the Chiefs called him in as injury cover and he made his Super Rugby debut against the Highlanders.

He went on to become a fixture in the Chiefs front row. Before he signed with the Chiefs and New Zealand Rugby in 2021, allblacks.com later reported, he had turned down offers from overseas. That May he started at hooker in the Super Rugby Aotearoa final in Christchurch, which the Crusaders won 24-13.

Two tries on debut

The All Blacks first called him in as cover in July 2021, when Asafo Aumua reported concussion symptoms after the Test against Tonga. Then Dane Coles, the hooker he had idolised as a schoolboy, was scratched from the bench for the second Test against Fiji with a calf problem, and Taukei'aho was given the No 16 jersey at FMG Stadium Waikato, his home ground, on 17 July 2021.

He came on for Codie Taylor midway through the second half and became All Black number 1198. His first try came from the back of a lineout maul a few metres out. His second took more work: after a set piece he took the ball from Ardie Savea and finished in the corner. The All Blacks won 60-13, and after the match the new man was handed the trophy to look after.

He played nine Tests in 2021, eight of them off the bench. His first start came against Argentina in Brisbane on 18 September, and he scored again in a 36-13 win.

2022: seven tries

He came off the bench in the first two home Tests against Ireland in July 2022, a 42-19 win at Eden Park and a 23-12 loss in Dunedin. For the Rugby Championship opener in Mbombela, Ian Foster started him at hooker, with Coles on the bench and Taylor not in the 23. The All Blacks lost 26-10, but Taukei'aho kept the No 2 jersey for Ellis Park a week later and scored in the 35-23 win.

The tries kept coming. He scored in the 25-18 loss to Argentina in Christchurch, scored twice in the 39-37 win over Australia in Melbourne, and scored off the bench in the 40-14 win at Eden Park. On the end-of-year tour he scored off the bench in the 55-23 win in Cardiff and again in a start against Scotland at Murrayfield, a 31-23 win.

That made seven Test tries in 2022, equalling the record for an All Blacks forward in a calendar year, set by Coles with seven the year before. RUGBE's Test data confirms that no All Blacks forward has scored more in a year.

After the tour of South Africa, the former Blues and Leinster back Isa Nacewa was clear on Sky Sport's The Breakdown. "In my eyes, he starts," Nacewa said, praising how he had performed in one of the hardest places in the world to play.

A long-term deal and a World Cup

In 2023 he became the first All Black signed through to the end of the 2027 World Cup cycle, re-signing with New Zealand Rugby, the Chiefs and Waikato. He said there was no secret to it. "If I can improve one per cent every week, then I'm happy," he said. His Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan said he had sacrificed a lot to develop into "a world class player".

That June he started the Super Rugby final against the Crusaders in Hamilton, lost 25-20. In the Test season he started against Australia in Dunedin, a 23-20 win, and at the World Cup in France he came off the bench in the opening loss to France, started the 71-3 win over Namibia in Toulouse, and came off the bench against Uruguay, in the 44-6 semi-final win over Argentina and in the final against South Africa, lost 12-11.

The Achilles

In the Chiefs' Super Rugby semi-final win over the Hurricanes in June 2024 he ruptured his Achilles tendon. He missed the final, which the Chiefs lost 41-10 to the Blues, and every one of the All Blacks' 14 Tests that year. His comeback came on 1 March 2025, off the bench against the Brumbies in Hamilton, around the target date the Chiefs had set for him.

Back in black

He played 13 Tests in 2025, more than in any other year, though only three were starts. After coming off the bench in the first two Tests against France, he started the third in Hamilton, a 29-19 win. In Cordoba on 16 August he scored two tries off the bench in a 41-24 win over Argentina, a game the NZ Rugby Museum lists as his best, and he scored again in Buenos Aires a week later, a 29-23 loss. He started against South Africa in Wellington and against Wales in Cardiff, a 52-26 win that ended the year, and came off the bench in his other Tests, among them Perth, Chicago, Edinburgh and London.

In June 2025 he started the Super Rugby final against the Crusaders in Christchurch, lost 16-12, and in June 2026 he started the final against the Hurricanes in Wellington, lost 60-5. He has started four Super Rugby finals for the Chiefs, in 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2026, and they lost all four.

A calf in Sydney

In the 2026 Test season he came off the bench against Italy in Wellington, in the third Test against South Africa at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, where he scored in a 29-24 loss, and in the second Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney on 17 October. In the second half in Sydney he tore his calf accelerating off a maul. The injury was expected to keep him out for four to six weeks, and it ruled him out of the northern tour.

Style and standing

The NZ Rugby Museum describes him as a powerful hooker known for his scrummaging, ball-carrying and work rate. allblacks.com has said he is as good as most hookers at scoring from lineout mauls and has become a hard-to-stop runner in open play.

His 14 Test tries put him third among All Blacks hookers, behind Codie Taylor (25) and Coles (23). Of his 46 Tests, 13 have been starts and 33 have come off the bench.

Where he is now

Taukei'aho, 29, is recovering from the calf injury and is not with the All Blacks in Britain. He is in the Chiefs squad for 2027, with 121 games for the club behind him, and his New Zealand Rugby contract runs to the end of 2027.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026. The Chiefs figure is from the Chiefs' 2027 squad release; the Waikato figures are from the Waikato Herald's report of his 2023 re-signing.