Legendary Alafoti Faosaliva 'The Truck' : An all around great Rugby player

Alafotu Faosaliva clip

The Legendary Alafoti Faosaliva "The Truck" has been privileged to play during one of the most interesting times in Rugby. A time in Rugby when Pro-teams were switching from the traditional Big-Hits and hard Scrums, to a mix of Hot-potato Rugby strategy. He's been compared to the Legendary Ma'a Nonu from the All Blacks team who when the teams are about evenly locked in strength and speed, he turns on the energy and explodes through the lines of defense, attracts the defense then fakes, or contributes in some other amazing way within a scrum battle. Alafoti was one of the first players to be called "The Beast" in Rugby and still some people say it so, that he's not one to get competitive with. 

Even other Pacific Islander teams know his reputation and agree that Alafoti Faosaliva is one of the greats to have ever played the game. 

"In the past it used to be looked down on to pass the ball without running your best effort. Running forward showed strength, even running between the polls is still a message to the opposing team that they can hit your most vulnerable area. Strategy changed when Polynesians started playing Rugby and even the All Blacks team have been known during Alafoti Faosaliva's generation to have been forced into switching to a Hot-potato rugby game "

"That's the problem with some of the Referee calls during that generation of Rugby, to the new watcher, the game looks the same but to older Rugby fans the game is very very different. Yellow card here, Red Card there...the rules started changing when the Pacific (New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Australia) and South Africa took over the game"

"Samoa and Tonga play traditional Rugby but that may change in the future. Rugby without the strength testing of Big-Hits and Scrums is just backwards passing and long range kicking. That's not a real game"

 

"Not much to say on this guy if ya know Rugby. He's different. This guy has heart and magic. When I say this, I mean ya just never know what he's gonna do. He's a solid player when comes to rules, doesn't go for the show....but theres a point where if ya make some bad referee calls, he's gonna go beast on the opposition"

Posted in: The Sports Blog