Tani Fuga
Samoan rugby union player
Tanielu "Tani" Fuga (born 14 July 1973) is a Samoan rugby union player. Born in Apia, he was brought up by his grandparents, Iosia and Salavao Fuga and they moved to Auckland in 1986 for him to study. He attended Waitakere College in Auckland and played for the Waitemata club.
He played as hooker and, after playing for Samoa in 1999, decided to move to the UK as one of his idols, Keith Wood played there for Harlequins. Tani joined Quins in 2000 and made his debut as a replacement against London Wasps on 9 September that year. He scored his first try for the club in the European Challenge Cup victory over Périgueux at the Twickenham Stoop on 7 October 2000. He retired from playing after a benefit year organised at Harlequins in 2010 and returned to New Zealand.
He won nine caps for Samoa and scored a try in his second game against New Zealand back in June 1999. He was a member of the Samoan squad at the 2007 Rugby World Cup finals.
Fuga opened a branch of Nando's in Ponsonby Road, Auckland, New Zealand, on 6 September 2011 for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but it closed in late 2013 due to low sales.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tani Fuga” is samoan rugby union player. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Tani, Fuga and Samoan, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “samoan rugby union player” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3515163. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 1986, 1999 and 2000.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Tani Fuga”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tani Fuga primary sources, Tani Fuga archive and Tani research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tani Fuga”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tani Fuga” 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.