Atu Manu

Atu Manu has been loaned or transferred seven times in eight seasons. He arrived at Castres in December 2025 as a medical joker, covering Adrea Cocagi, who is out for several months.

Wing and centre, 1.86m and 105kg, born Atunaisa Taulanga Vaka Manu at Tofua in Tonga on 24 July 1998.

He learned the game at Christchurch Boys’ High School in New Zealand and joined the Crusaders Academy in 2016, which is as promising a start as the sport offers.

What followed was not that. Viadana in Italy in February 2018. Stade Français for 2018-19, who immediately loaned him to Massy, where he played mostly espoirs rugby. Carcassonne on loan in 2019-20. Grenoble on loan in November 2021, then on a two-year deal. Nevers in 2024. Castres in December 2025.

The Grenoble spell was the closest he came to settling. He was there for the Pro D2 finals of 2023 and 2024, both lost — the same two defeats that shape the records of Irakli Aptsiauri and Mathis Sarragallet, now both at Lyon.

Tonga played him at the Monaco Olympic sevens qualifier in June 2021 and capped him on 30 October that year, against Scotland.

A medical joker at 27 is a short contract with no promise attached, and he has taken several of them. What the record shows is a player good enough to be wanted at this level repeatedly and never quite kept, which in the Top 14 is a larger category than the squad lists suggest.