Maui Rugby Union sending a team to prestigious youth tournament in New Zealand

As Vili Toluta’u watched a group of Maui Rugby Union players practice for their upcoming trip to the Global Youth Sevens Tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, he thought back to his youth.

Toluta’u, a Baldwin High School graduate who works for T.J. Gomes Trucking, was a four-time rugby All-American at Central Washington University, a four-year Major League Rugby player who won the championship with the Seattle Seawolves in 2018 and was named most valuable player of the game, and was a member of the United States men’s national rugby union team team, the USA Eagles, in 2018.

“I wish I had this kind of opportunity when I was their age as well, but luckily it worked out for me,” the 30-year-old Toluta’u said Tuesday at Maui Lani Regional Park. “But for these guys, trying to open their eyes, what they’re working up to, they’ve got to realize that they’re going to a country that their first sport is rugby, so they better step up their game.”

The Maui Rugby Union is sending a team to one of the most prestigious U18 tournaments in the world — it is certainly the most important trip the club has ever sent a team to, according to club officials. The Global Youth Sevens Tournament will run from Dec. 13-15 and the Maui contingent is set to leave next week Tuesday.

The team consists of 13 boys from the Central Maui area. Another player, 16-year-old Maui High School junior Ulalei Pulu, will play for Belmont Shore, a girls team from Long Beach, Calif., that is going to the event. Pulu is making her second straight trip to the tournament with Belmont Shore. 

“It’s an incredible experience and I know it’s going to help them in the future to learn more about rugby, because we’ve always heard about New Zealand and the New Zealand All Blacks,” said Maui Rugby Union president and coach Siua Lolohea, who had an extensive rugby playing career. “And now you’re going there.”

Sio Filikitonga, a 16-year-old Maui High sophomore who has been playing rugby since he was 5, is excited to be going on the trip. He is also a football player for the Sabers.

“Very excited to go see the competition out there and learn different things and see new things,” Filikitonga said. “Rugby helps (football) a lot with form tackling, just knowing to run the ball and stay active.”

Filikitonga said the trip will be an opportunity to show what Maui rugby is all about. This team has made several trips to Mainland tournaments, but this is the first international event.

“Our islands are small, people like to doubt us, and we just want to go in and show people that we can compete with everybody else,” Filikitonga said. “We’re not just stuck over here.”

Team member Ma’ake Lolohea, a 15-year-old Maui High sophomore and Siua Lolohea’s son who has been playing the game since he was 3, has never been to New Zealand. The Maui team is made up of 15- and 16-year-olds, while most of the competition will be 17-18.

“I wouldn’t say they’re any different from Mainland teams, just the competitiveness is bigger,” Ma’ake Lolohea said of what he expects to see in the tournament. “We can learn a lot, more passing and tackling, just how much different it is playing U18 and how it is in New Zealand. It’s going to be pretty fun to see how much of a different level they are compared to us, just how much different it is.”

The Maui Rugby Union started in 2007 under the guidance of Jack Breen, who handed over the reigns of the organization to Siua Lolohea two years ago. One large part of Breen’s original mission was to help Maui players get to college on rugby scholarships — over the years, he lost count on how many Mauians have gone on to play the sport in college, but said it is more than 50.

“Heck, we’ve had dozens of kids reach All-American level in college,” Breen said. 

The club currently has about 80 active players, mostly from Central Maui and South Maui, as it recovers from being slowed down by the pandemic and the Lahaina wildfire. 

It has had as many as three club teams in Maui Interscholastic League schools, including boys and girls clubs at Lahainaluna and a girls club at Maui High, in a program that started three years ago. Since the Lahaina wildfire, the Lahainaluna clubs have gone dormant, but there is still a girls club team at Maui High.

Adrienne Pulu, the Maui Rugby Union treasurer, a girls coach and Ulalei’s mother, is hopeful that the club team route can lead to rugby becoming an MIL sport. MIL surfing also was born through the club route.

“That’s my hope is to become an MIL sport, but baby steps, we’re hoping to get more traction with the club route,” Pulu said. “We hope to revive the Lahainaluna club … they had good numbers, we had a couple scrimmages here, but then after the fire there was some interest, but we just couldn’t pick it back up yet.”

The Pulus went to the same event last year when Ulalei played for Belmont Shore. Ulalei Pulu is one of 10 members of the Maui High club team and she will have that team in mind as she travels to New Zealand.

“I think it’s cool to represent my school because rugby is not big out here and to show them that I have competition, that I can compete with them is very cool, and a great way to represent Hawai’i,” the 5-foot-3 Ulalei Pulu said.

Ulalei Pulu said the sport has strengthened her relationship with her mom and she appreciates what the adults are doing to make this trip possible. Lolohea said most of the funding for the trip is being provided by Ulupalakua Ranch owners Pardee and Sumner Erdman, both of whom are large rugby boosters who sponsor an annual tournament on Maui. To keep expenses down, the Maui contingent will stay in a church.

Ulalei Pulu is grateful for the people making it happen, including her own mother.

“It strengthens our relationship as a mother and daughter,” Ulalei Pulu said. “There’s some times she just understands what I’m going through more than I do.”

Toluta’u, the greatest Maui rugby player ever, is happy to see the opportunity arrive for this group. Toluta’u routinely shows up at Maui Rugby Union practice to work out, coach and mentor the youngsters in the same shoes he used to be in. The 69-year-old Breen also shows up to practice often as well and he was running the Maui boys going on the trip through their paces on Monday. Neither will make this trip, however.

“There’s a lot of opportunities and blessings might come their way.” Toluta’u said. “So, they’ll see what they have to get up to, to get there.”