Tana Umaga
New Zealand rugby league footballer, and rugby union footballer and coach
Jonathan Ionatana Falefasa Umaga (; Samoan pronunciation: [ˈtana ˈuːmaŋa]; born 27 May 1973) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player and captain of the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks. He is the former head coach of Moana Pasifika in the Super Rugby competition, and current defence coach for the All Blacks. He was granted and uses the Samoan chiefly honorific title of Faʻalogo, meaning "the listener".
He played for the Hurricanes from Super 12's inception in 1996 and took over the captaincy in 2003. Graham Henry named him as All Blacks captain in 2004; under his leadership the All Blacks won 19 of their 22 games including a clean sweep of the British & Irish Lions and a Grand Slam tour in 2005. At the end of 2005, Umaga retired from international rugby after 74 Test caps and 36 tries. 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.
The public source identifies “Tana Umaga” as new Zealand rugby league footballer, and rugby union footballer and coach. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tana, Umaga and Zealand.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1999454. VIAF identifies the subject as 21586403. The Library of Congress control number is n2007005972. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 1996, 2003 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tana Umaga” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.