Tanginoa Halaifonua

A Tonga international who counts as a French-trained player, which is worth more to a Top 14 squad than most people realise.

Tanginoa Halaifonua is a Tonga international, and he also holds JIFF status, the label the French league gives a player who came through its own academies. Both facts are on his record, and the second is the one that makes him valuable to a Top 14 squad.

Lock and back-row at Stade Français, 1.96m and 115kg, and 29 years old.

The status is not sentimental. Every Top 14 club has to name a minimum of JIFF players in its match-day squads across a season, so a forward who is both a full international and French-trained fills two needs with one place. Halaifonua came through the Lyon academy, which is where it comes from.

Lyon loaned him to Massy in Pro D2 for 2018-19 to get him matches. He extended with Lyon in 2019 for two more seasons, played the 2020 Supersevens in their shirt, and then signed for Grenoble for two years from that July instead.

Three clubs in five years is a lot of moving for a forward in his twenties, and the pattern behind it is a squad player looking for the minutes that turn a contract into a career.

The Grenoble years are the substantial ones. In 2022-23 the club finished second in the regular season and reached the final, where he started against Oyonnax and played fifty-three minutes before Talalelei Gray replaced him. Grenoble lost 14-3 and stayed down.

He covers the second row and both sides of the back row at 1.96m and 115kg, and the loan to Massy and the Supersevens appearances tell you a club has been willing to move him around to find matches. A forward who can be named in three places is worth a bench seat on that alone, and one who is also a Tonga international with JIFF status is worth a contract.