Feybian Tukino

A New Zealand-born forward who arrived in a French squad in his mid-twenties, by a route nothing has recorded.

Feybian Tukino was born in New Zealand on 16 June 2001 and plays in the back row for Castres. He is 1.90m and 111kg, which is already a senior Top 14 forward’s build rather than one still filling out.

What follows is what the data supports, and nothing more. No article on him exists anywhere, nothing at age-grade level is filed under this name, and the club’s published season summaries pass over him.

New Zealand-born forwards arriving in French squads in their mid-twenties usually come through provincial rugby or a spell in a lower European division. Neither generates much coverage, and this page will not assert which of the two it was.

The back row he has joined is a hard one to break into. Mathieu Babillot has been capped by France, Baptiste Delaporte is a French champion contracted to 2027, and Abraham Papali’i is a 126kg forward who has played international rugby. Baptiste Cope is also there, and he came through the academy.

At 111kg Tukino is heavier than Delaporte and lighter than Papali’i, which places him as a ball-carrying blindside or a No. 8 rather than a lineout option.

He is 25. That is old enough that the absence of a record is itself information: it means the career so far has happened somewhere nobody writes about. There will be more here when a source exists to write it from.