Selevasio Tolofua

Selevasio Tolofua has won three French championships and a European Cup, and in two of those finals he came off the bench for Jerome Kaino. That is the shape of his Toulouse career: very good, very decorated, and always behind somebody.

A No. 8 at 1.86m and 116kg, he joined Clermont in 2025 on a season’s loan with a two-year contract behind it.

The family is a rugby institution. His brother Christopher hooked for Toulouse, his brother Nekelo plays centre at Blagnac, his uncle Abraham propped for Nice, Grenoble, Montferrand and Béziers, and his cousin Julia is a judoka. He was born in Saint-Laurent-du-Var and started at Olympique Marcquois in the north, where his father drove buses around Lille. The local club had a partnership with Toulouse. Nekelo went first, the family followed a year later, and all three brothers ended up in the Toulouse age groups.

Injuries slowed the early years. He settled at No. 8 in 2018-19, came on for Kaino in both the semi-final and the final, and won his first Brennus as Toulouse beat Clermont 24-18.

2020-21 was his best season: 24 games, 17 starts, on for Kaino at 55 minutes as Toulouse beat La Rochelle 22-17 for a fifth European Cup, then starting the Top 14 final against the same side three weeks later. Two titles in a month.

France capped him at Twickenham in November 2020, starting the Autumn Nations Cup final against England in a 22-19 defeat after extra time. He waited two years for the second, against Japan in 2022. He is still on two.

The third Brennus came in 2023, off the bench for Jack Willis in a 29-26 final. Then fifteen years at Toulouse ended and he went to Toulon, alongside Christopher, before Clermont.

He carries hard and low and he is a serious defensive presence at the base of a scrum. What he has never done is hold a shirt for a whole season at the top level. At 29, in a back row where Marcos Kremer takes the collisions, this is his chance to be first choice rather than the man who finishes games.