Uilisi Halaholo has had to battle to be here – against the odds of his upbringing, the trials of lockdown and tests of Covid.
The latter – proved positive at the start of the autumn – made him miss a dream fixture against the All Blacks, the team he strove to be part of as a child, but now he is ready for their foes Australia.
Halaholo is the west Auckland boy of Tongan parents who came from ‘nothing’, escaped a culture of gangs and drink to find rugby, found an accepting new home in Wales and a nation that has adopted him openly.
Wales centre Uilisi Halaholo is relishing the chance to face Australia on Saturday
On a chilly morning overlooking the Cardiff Arms Park pitch – Halaholo’s home for five years now – he opens up on turning his life around.
His parents, father Tu’aofa, the sixth child of 12, and mother Malia, were born in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa then immigrated to New Zealand in search of a better life.
Uilisi is number two of his siblings – with older sister Setina, and younger brothers Noa, Lona and Sam.
‘We had nothing, man,’ Halaholo explains, pausing before he continues.
‘This is not me trying to make my parents look bad, but we went to school with no lunch, then would come home, have a couple of pieces of toast and then wait for dinner. My dad would work 6am to 6pm in the factory – and then we’d eat.
‘People might see it as children not being taken care of but it was normal and we were grateful for it.’
Halaholo is the west Auckland boy of Tongan parents who came from ‘nothing’
Malia would come home later than Tu’aofa, combining work at the ‘3 Guys’ supermarket with study; now she is a tenant manager for Housing New Zealand.
She was strict with her kids. School, church, rugby – go to those and come back to your family.
Her husband has worked 12 hour days for more than 30 years now, and is still four from retirement.
‘You know those long, thin lightbulbs?’ Halaholo goes on.
‘Dad used to make the metal part around them. He’s got five brothers, and they all worked there – it was like a little family factory. When I go and talk to the newbies they say he’s the man. He could use the machine with his eyes closed!
‘I’m grateful for that fella, man. He had to do what he had to do, that’s why I had to give rugby a good go.’
In his late teens Halaholo fell on the wrong side of the tracks. He wasted his talent joining a gang, watched New Zealand win the 2011 World Cup drunk and on drugs, was dropped from the Auckland academy by a coach named Wayne Pivac, and had a child whom he initially neglected.
Atu is now 13, having latterly grown up in Wales with sisters Sitina, seven, Miriam, four and Masina two, as Halaholo and wife Sandra moved there in 2016.
They love their Cardiff life, living by Roath Park Lake, meeting welcoming friends and attending church. The girls confuse their father by speaking Welsh too.
‘Sitina comes and asks me questions in Welsh and I have no idea what she’s talking about!’ he laughs.
The 31-year-old centre credits his recovery to Cardiff team-mate Rey Lee-lo (right)
‘We always do little quizzes… “tell me six colours”
