Tevita Tatafu

Tevita Tatafu is one of those players who quietly earns your respect the more you watch him. Born in American Samoa in 1996 and eventually finding his rugby home in Japan, he's the kind of flanker or number eight who does the unglamorous work that wins matches — the jackal, the grunt at the breakdown, the tackle you almost miss because it's so efficiently placed. What I find compelling about his story is the arc: from the Pacific Islands diaspora through Japanese club rugby, then stepping up to the Top 14 with Bordeaux Bègles, one of France's most ambitious clubs, before returning to Suntory in 2025. That's not a journey that happens by accident; it takes serious rugby IQ and physical resilience. He doesn't dominate highlight reels, but if you watch the collisions, he's usually right in the middle of them.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Tevita Tatafu

Name (Japanese)

テビタ・タタフ

Reading

てびた・たたふ

Born

January 2, 1996 (age 30)

Origin

American Samoa, United States

Occupation

rugby union player

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Rat

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tevita%20Tatafu%20(rugby%20union%2C%20born%201996)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%86%E3%83%93%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%BF%E3%83%95
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q26045061

Tags

• rugby union player

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.