Born: December 26, 1952
Test record: 0 Tests
Tours: 1980 tour of Britain and France

Wellington’s versatile backline veteran Nolan Tupaea toured Britain and France with the 1980 Kiwis.

Breaking into senior club football with St George in the WRL in 1970, he played the first of 64 matches for Wellington while still a teenager in 1972.

Tupaea enjoyed several representative highlights during the 1970s, including playing for Kiwi Colts against Queensland in 1973, North Island against Sydney Metropolitan in 1976, and Wellington against Great Britain in 1974 and 1979. He spent the 1973-74 off-season at Wigan but did not break into the first team.

A valuable contributor at five-eighth, centre or wing, Tupaea was a regular for the successful Central Districts side of the late-1970s and early-1980s, representing the side against Australia (1980) and France (1981), and in the Tooth Cup and KB Cup competitions in Australia.

The elusive Tupaea joined Petone Panthers in 1980 (he would be named in the club’s Team of the Century in 2012) and was selected in the Kiwis’ squad to tour Britain and France later that year.

He made 11 appearances at five-eighth, scoring tries in wins over Blackpool Borough and Leigh, and in a loss to St Helens, but could not crack the Test line-up.

Having been ruled out of New Zealand Māori’s 1975 Pacific Cup campaign by injury, Tupaea belatedly represented the side against Auckland and on the tour of Britain in 1983.