Brumbies player donates gear for Afaluko

By Deidre Fanene 04 January 2016, 12:00AM

Back in Samoa, well-known Australian rugby union player, Scott Sio donated rugby gear to the Solosolo Rugby Club, the ‘Afaluko” last week.

Mr. Sio plays prop for the Brumbies in the Super Rugby competition. 

He said that the reason why he decided to bring gear for the club was because of his father.

Although Sio was born in Sydney Australia, “This is where my father grew up here in Solosolo,” he said.

“He spent most of his youth here. A lot of what we do in our youth is play rugby and we sometimes lose sight of the part of rugby where we need to give back to the grassroots to those who will appreciate it.

“Like the Samoan culture, rugby plays a big part in sport alongside religion so those are the two things that we have been brought up with.

“A lot of the kids here who are probably aspiring to play for the Manu or maybe the All Blacks or the Wallabies and so I would like to help them start doing that one day .

“Part of my life in rugby came from my parents, my culture and a lot from my family.”

President of the club, Leafa Ioane Sio thanked Mr. Sio and his parents for the support throughout the year.

“I know it’s not easy to donate things to Samoa and I believe you have spent a lot of money on this gear to get it here,” he said.

“For the love that you have for your village, we want to thank you so much for the gifts.

“We will use them wisely and remember your love and kindness to our club.”

Sio first made his Brumbies debut during the 2012 Super Rugby season against the Sharks in Canberra. He also represented Australia under 20 at the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship. He was educated at Sydney's Trinity Grammar School in Summer Hill, where he attained the roles of Captain of Rugby and School Vice-Captain in 2009. Later that year, he represented NSW Schoolboys, Australia A Schoolboys and Australian Schoolboys.

Sio made his run-on debut at loosehead prop against the All Blacks during the winning final of the 2015 Rugby Championships, after a pair of impressive cameos from the reserves bench against South Africa and Argentina.

Sio was named in the Wallabies 31-man squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where he supplanted most-capped Wallabies prop, James Slipper as the Wallabies first choice loosehead. Additional information from Wikipedia.

By Deidre Fanene 04 January 2016, 12:00AM
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