Born: June 22, 1985 - Auckland
Test record: 40 Tests (2003-11, 2013-17) - 3 tries (12 points)
Tours: 2004 Tri Nations, 2007 tour of Britain and France, 2008 World Cup, 2009 Four Nations, 2010 Four Nations, 2011 Four Nations, 2013 World Cup, 2014 Four Nations, 2016 Four Nations, 2017 World Cup
A Test debutant at just 18 years of age and the son of Kiwis legend James Leuluai, half/hooker Thomas Leuluai played 40 Tests for New Zealand in an international career spanning 15 seasons.
Leuluai played junior football for Papatoetoe and Ōtāhuhu, then turned out for Eastern Tornadoes in the Bartercard Cup. He was more than a month shy of his 18th birthday when he made his NRL debut off the bench for the Warriors during 2003.
The playmaking tyro settled into the five-eighth role alongside Stacey Jones during the last two months of the regular season and featured in all three of the club's finals matches. Representing the Junior Kiwis at the end of the season, Leulaui received an interchange call-up for the Kiwis' 30-16 upset of the Kangaroos at North Harbour Stadium a fortnight later.
With Jones unavailable, Leuluai lined up at halfback in the 2004 Anzac Test and in all four of New Zealand's Tri Nations fixtures.
Leuluai spent the 2005-06 seasons with London Broncos/Harlequins; his only international appearances during those seasons were in the No.7 for the respective Anzac Tests, missing back-to-back eventful Tri Nations campaigns.
He linked with traditional heavyweights Wigan in 2007 and featured in two Tests against Great Britain at halfback at the end of the year, before coming off the bench and scoring a try in the one-off win over France. The 22-year-old also partnered Jones in the halves in the All Golds' exhibition match win over Northern Union.
Leuluai was one of only two Super League players to be called up for the 2008 Centenary Test against Australia at the SCG, while he scored a try in a one-off World Cup warm-up against Tonga. After featuring at halfback in all three pool matches at the tournament, he was switched to hooker for the semi-final and final - playing an integral role in the Kiwis' historic 34-20 triumph over the Kangaroos in the latter.
In 2009, he came off the bench in a one-off Test against Tonga and was back at hooker for New Zealand's three Four Nations matches.
Leuluai won the Harry Sunderland Trophy as player of the match in Wigan's drought-breaking 2010 Super League grand final win. Returning home to score a try at halfback in a Four Nations warm-up against Samoa, he reverted to hooker for all four Tests as New Zealand surged to another tournament victory via a Suncorp Stadium final win against Australia. He played in all three matches of the Kiwis' unsuccessful 2011 Four Nations campaign in Britain.
Following a 2012 season that saw Leuluai celebrate in Wigan's Challenge Cup victory, the young veteran returned to the Warriors and played all 24 games in the halves alongside Shaun Johnson in the 2013 NRL campaign. But his only game at the 2013 World Cup was off the bench against Papua New Guinea.
Leuluai's 2014 and '15 seasons were significantly disrupted by injuries, but he was a hooker for round-robins wins over Australia and England in the 2014 Four Nations and came off the bench in the 2015 Anzac Test victory in Brisbane. He made four appearances for New Zealand at five-eighth in 2016, in the Anzac Test and all three preliminary matches in the Four Nations.
He went back to Wigan in 2017, playing his last matches for the Kiwis at hooker in that year's World Cup during pool play against Samoa and Tonga.
Leuluai won another Super League grand final in 2018 and collected a second Challenge Cup winner's medal in 2022 - the last season of an extraordinary 20-season professional career that encompassed more than 450 club games.