Tevita Tatafu

He arrived in France at seventeen speaking no French and barely any English, on his uncle's advice. He is now Bayonne's first-choice tighthead.

Tevita Tatafu came to France in the autumn of 2019, aged seventeen, on the advice of his uncle Toma’akino Taufa, who was playing at Bayonne. He spoke no French and barely any English. He could train with the academy but not play for it, because he was not yet eighteen.

Tighthead prop at Bayonne, 1.83m and 133kg — the heaviest man in the squad by some way.

Born in Nuku’alofa, he started at EUA High School and then Apifo’ou College on Tongatapu. He arrived as a loosehead and was moved to the other side of the scrum because Matis Perchaud already had that shirt.

Yannick Bru put him on a Top 14 bench in February 2021, months after his eighteenth birthday, because the senior squad was short. He replaced Sam Nixon in a 26-23 win over Brive. Bayonne went down that season.

Pro D2 made him. A first start against Carcassonne, then eight starts in nine matches, then a medial ligament rupture in early April 2022 — and a return in time for the play-offs, where he started as Bayonne won the title and went back up.

The next two seasons were interrupted again, and he spent them behind Pascal Cotet and Pieter Scholtz. Then in 2023-24 Grégory Patat simply picked him: the first nine rounds, seven of them starts, and a very good performance in the historic draw at Munster in Bayonne’s first ever Champions Cup match.

Because he qualifies as a JIFF, he became eligible for France once he had five years’ residency, in November 2024.

A short, immensely heavy scrummager. At 23 he has already held a Top 14 starting shirt for two seasons, which most tightheads do not manage until their late twenties.