Divided loyalties but Uini Atonio living the dream with France

Uini Atonio has a great story and he tells it well.

Born in the Canterbury region in New Zealand, the 25-year old is of Samoan heritage and played for the land of his parents’ birth at an U20 Rugby World before moving to La Rochelle and earning a place in Philippe Saint-Andre’s squad of 31 for this World Cup.

Such a circuitous route isn’t unique.

Over 100 of the players at this tournament were born outside of the country they are representing. That’s roughly one in every six. France are way above that average with 10 of their number boasting places of birth outside of France, though there are nuances that need to be pointed out.

Nobody questions the nationality of Thierry Dusatoir, Sofiane Guitoune, Yannick Nyanga and Fulgence Ouedrago any more than that of Jamie Heaslip who happened to be born in Israel, but six others are more recent arrivals — Atonio among them.

The presence of so many ‘foreigners’ in the ranks doesn’t sit well with everyone.

“Of course there’ll always be a negative,” said Atonio who is one of three tighthead props in the French squad. “There are a lot of guys who play in my position that are French. They played rugby since they were young.

“Their dream was to play for France. There’s always going to be a negative feedback from the public or from some people who actually know the players. I think you just have to get around that and just try to carry on,” he said.

It’s not like France are alone in using the rules as they do. Atonio, with a mischievous grin, makes the point that Ireland’s Jared Payne was a “big, big star back home” though he seems glad he doesn’t have to fill the shoes of a legend in the way his fellow Kiwi has with Brian O’Driscoll.

Many hands have been rubbed over rugby’s residency rules with critics of the current situation arguing that it is simply too easy to make the switch. Five and six-year qualifying periods have been suggested though Atonio thinks very differently.

“They should change it a bit, that if you don’t play more than 10 tests for one country you can change. A couple of guys are missing out on playing for the little countries like Samoa and Tonga because they’ve played one match or two matches for the All Blacks. It’s unfair for them.”

He never thought for a second he would be wearing blue. Four years ago his contract was with Counties Manukau. Atonio was happy with life double-jobbing as a rugby player and a landscape gardener and realises now that he wasn’t fulfilling his potential. Being cut loose made him think again.

Life in France, even in the Pro D2, offered him the chance to take care of his family financially so he went for it and thrived despite initial struggles with the culture on and off the pitch. The scrum was a whole new ball game and the language stumped him completely.

People spoke so fast that he didn’t know if they were praising or criticising him. A gentle giant — he weighs over 152kg and is reputedly the biggest player at this tournament — he took a major step when making a speech after a loss to lowly Albi one day.

The speech was in English and he doesn’t even know if his colleagues understood him, but his coaches were impressed and installed him as club captain, though a call-up to ‘Les Bleus’ was still a distant dream given La Rochelle were still in the second division.

“I actually mentioned it as a joke in front of the media, maybe two or three years ago,” he said. “I was playing one or two good games and they were like ‘one day you could play for the French, would you?’ I was like ‘I would love to play for France’, but it was never in my mind.

“I was just playing for my club and playing some games. We were in the second division so it was never going to be an option for me to play for the French team until we came up to Top 14 in 2012. It was around there (that he got the call-up).”

And as for what the next chapter might bring? “I might become an actor,” he said with another wry smile.