THE MAN FROM NOWHERE
There hardest part of telling Karl Tu’inukuafe’s story is knowing where to begin. It’s tempting to start at Eden Park on June 9, 2018 and say there were tears streaming down his face as he sang the national anthem.
It was one of the more moving sights of the last few years, seeing this once enormous man get ready to win his first test cap. Or it could all start 55 minutes later when he actually got on the field for the first time, coming on straight into a scrum against one of the more formidable set-piece units in the world game.
But that can wait. We will get there. And instead we will pick the story up at the tail end of 2014 when things were at their most bleak and desperate for Tu’inukuafe.
Four years ago Tu’inukuafe was staring death in the face. It was maybe not imminent, maybe not guaranteed to happen but without some kind of significant change in lifestyle, he probably didn’t have long before tragedy struck.
He was pushing 175kg – a weight his 1.82m frame couldn’t support. He was 21 and while he didn’t want to admit it to himself and confront he truth, deep down he knew something had gone horribly wrong. There had been no obvious turning point or event to steer him off course, he’d just drifted after leaving Wesley College and bad habits had set in, lethargy had gripped and
