Tana Umaga

Jonathan Ionatana Falefasa Umaga (born 27 May 1973) is a New Zealand former rugby union footballer and former captain of the national team, the All Blacks.

He is head coach of Moana Pasifika in the Super Rugby competition.

Umaga played for the Wainuiomata Lions and rose through the ranks, making the Wellington U-16 and U-17 sides, and was eventually named in the Junior Kiwi side of 1991.The side also featured future National Rugby League stars Joe Vagana, Ruben Wiki and Gene Ngamu.

That same year he signed with the Newcastle Knights but within three weeks was back on the plane to New Zealand because of homesickness.

He never did play a First-Grade NSWRL Premiership game.

In 1993 Tana's brother Mike, who played rugby union for Manu Samoa, persuaded him to take up rugby union in 1994.

Umaga played wing for the Wellington Lions in 1994 and quickly became a fixture in the starting line-up alongside his brother who also played on the wing.

He also played for Italian team Viadana Rugby in the 1994-1995 Italian season.

In his second season playing for the Hurricanes he scored a New Zealand record of 12 tries (now broken by Rico Gear) and earned a call up to the national team at the expense of an ill Jonah Lomu.

He scored a try in his debut test match.

He played for the Hurricanes from Super 12's inception in 1996 and took over the captaincy in 2003.

Umaga scored more tries than any other player within the team for three successive years, and in 1996 was selected for the original Hurricanes squad.

To accommodate outside backs Umaga, Lomu, Wilson and Cullen 1996–99 All Black coach John Hart moved Fullback Christian Cullen into the midfield.

With a new coach in Wayne Smith Tana Umaga became the regular wing in the All Blacks line-up.

Worries about the shape of the team were swept aside when the team smashed Tonga 102–0, in a game where debutantes Troy Flavell and Doug Howlett starred.

The brothers played on opposite teams in a Test match between Samoa and New Zealand in 1999 during which Tana scored two tries (the All Blacks won 71–13).

With Jonah Lomu regaining his fitness, coupled with a drop in form, Umaga was dropped from the All Blacks until the 1999 season.

Umaga, along with Taine Randell the All Blacks 1999 world cup captain, were asked to play for the New Zealand Barbarians against the New Zealand Māori.

He also played in the first Bledisloe Cup match in 2000, dubbed "the game of the century", scoring an early try.

He signed a new four-year contract with the NZRU, and when Alama Ieremia took up a contract in Japan, Umaga decided to shift his focus to centre, despite scoring 9 tries in 7 tests on the wing that year.

After having played just one match at centre for the Hurricanes, Umaga slotted into the midfield for the All Blacks against France, the team that beat the All Blacks in the semi-final of the World cup the previous year.

Umaga had a strong game in a victory.

The 2000 season was one of Umaga's best, with him being awarded the Kelvin Tremain Memorial Trophy for New Zealand rugby player of the year.

While the Smith era introduced a number of new players into the New Zealand team, they could not reclaim the Tri Nations or Bledisloe Cup in 2000 or 2001.

This led to his sacking and the hiring of former All Black mid-week player and successful Chiefs coach John Mitchell.

Moving Umaga to the centres was not to everyone's liking claim this as a reason for his loss of pace.

Despite this Umaga was named as captain of the Wellington Lions and vice captain of the All Blacks under Anton Oliver in John Mitchell's first squad.

Early on, John Mitchell and assistant coach Robbie Deans favoured Crusader Mark Robinson in the midfield.

The squad to play against Italy and Ireland as well as compete in the Tri Nations did not feature Umaga.

Despite news reports about him carrying a knee injury, on the day when the All Blacks were to take on Italy, Umaga played for his club Petone.

Graham Henry named him as All Blacks captain in 2004; under his leadership the All Blacks won 19 of their 22 games including the clean sweep of the British & Irish Lions and the Grand Slam in 2005.

At the end of 2005, after 74 Test caps (where he scored 36 tries), Umaga retired from international rugby.

Umaga played four games in 2007 for the Wellington Lions in the Air New Zealand Cup, to play 100 matches for the province, before taking up the position of coach at Toulon.

During his first season coaching in 2008–09 season Toulon was a poor performer in the first half of the season and facing a relegation scare, and there was speculation that he would be replaced by Philippe Saint-André.

Umaga returned to a playing role for Toulon in the second half of that season, and at the same time announced that he would not continue as head coach beyond that season.

After helping Toulon exit relegation trouble (they ultimately finished ninth that season), he retired as a player, and remained at Toulon as assistant coach for backs under Saint-André.

Umaga returned to New Zealand after the 2009–10 French season to become a player-coach with Counties Manukau and played with the Waikato Chiefs in the 2011 Super Rugby competition.

Umaga was born in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand.

He was born to Samoan immigrant parents, and grew up playing rugby league.

In March 2010, Umaga again returned to the playing ranks following a serious hip injury to Christian Loamanu.