Manoa Thompson

Manoa Thompson
Personal information
Born (1968-06-11) 11 June 1968
Playing information
Height 188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 95 kg (14 st 13 lb)
Position Centre, Fullback, Wing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1987–93 South Sydney Rabbitohs 61 29 0 2 118
1994 Western Suburbs 7 0 0 0 0
1995 Auckland Warriors 7 0 0 0 0
1995–96 Warrington Wolves 2 0 0 8
1998 AS Saint Estève
2000 AS Carcassonne
Total 75 31 0 2 126
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1996 Fiji 1 0 0 0 0
Source: [1]

Manoa Thompson is a former professional rugby league player who represented Fiji in 1996. Primarily a Centre, he played his first grade career with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Western Suburbs Magpies, and the Auckland Warriors in the NSWRL / ARL competition, as well as playing for the Warrington Wolves in the European Super League.

Thompson is the father of Jarryd Hayne.

Early years

Thompson was born in Fiji before moving to Australia when he was 11. His birth mother was Elenoa Tokalautawa who was married to his father Manoa. He was adopted by his mother's younger sister, Ana Waqanibaravi Thompson. [2] He played his junior football with the Alexandria Rovers.[3] Thompson also played rugby union and toured Japan with a New South Wales schoolboys side that included Graham Mackay and Scott Gourley.

His uncle is Sitiveni Rabuka. Thompson is the father of Jarryd Hayne, a professional NRL and NFL player, who played for the San Francisco 49ers and currently plays for the Gold Coast Titans.[4]

Playing career

Thompson joined the South Sydney Rabbitohs, where he played in their champion under-21 side before playing in their under-23 side. He made his first grade debut for Souths in round 11 of the 1989 season.

Thompson went on to play 61 first grade games for Souths between 1987 and 1993. He spent 1994 with the Western Suburbs Magpies, playing in only seven matches after having knee and ankle surgery during the off season. In 1995 he was part of the inaugural squad for the new Auckland Warriors franchise and played in the centres for the Warriors in their first ever competition game, a 25-22 loss to the Brisbane Broncos in front of 29,220 fans at the Ericsson Stadium in Auckland. However, he again only played in seven matches and was not retained for the 1996 season.

In November 1995 Thompson signed with English club Warrington and played for the club during the inaugural Super League season.[5] He left Warrington in February 1996 after failing to settle in Britain.[6] Thompson represented Fiji in 1996. His only appearance saw a 72-4 loss to Great Britain at the Prince Charles Park in Nadi, the score being the record for the largest test win by the Lions.

After returning from England, Thompson trialed with the Canberra Raiders before signing with the Penrith Panthers. However he spent the season in reserve grade and returned to South Sydney during the off season.

After not securing a contract, Thompson moved to France and played for AS Saint Estève before spending a year in rugby union, playing for RC Narbonne alongside David Knox.[3] Thompson then returned to league, spending a season with AS Carcassonne before retiring.[7]

Later years

In 2007 he was working as a delivery driver.[8] He is still involved in rugby league, sitting on the Australian Fiji rugby league board[9] and helping to coach that organisation's youth sides.[10]

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.