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| Full name | A'au James Leuluai | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1957-02-04)4 February 1957 (age 68) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Centre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Relatives | Phillip Leuluai (brother) Thomas Leuluai (son) Macgraff Leuluai (son) Kylie Leuluai (nephew) Marley Leuluai (great nephew) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A'au James Leuluai[2] (born 4 February 1957) is a New Zealand former international rugby leaguecentre.[1]
He is the father of formerWidnes Vikings playerMacgraff Leuluai andWigan Warriors and New Zealand internationalThomas Leuluai, and the uncle of formerLeeds Rhinos propKylie Leuluai. He is of Samoan descent.[3]
AMt Wellington junior, in his career Leuluai played for theManly-Warringah Sea Eagles,Wakefield Trinity,Hull FC,Leigh,Ryedale-York andDoncaster. Leuluai also represented theNew Zealand national rugby league team andNew Zealand Māori. Between 1979 and 1986 he played in 29 test matches forNew Zealand.[citation needed]
His Hull FC début, alongside fellow débutantDane O'Hara andGary Kemble (who had already appeared) came on 27 September 1981 against Castleford. Achievements over the next year included helping Hull to win the John Player Trophy, also being Premiership runners-up, and of course to lift the 1982Challenge Cup, the first time the Challenge Cup had been back at the Boulevard since 1914.[citation needed]
A'au James Leuluai was an unusedinterchange/substitute inHull FC's 14-14 draw withWidnes in the1982 Challenge Cup Final during the1981–82 season atWembley Stadium,London on Saturday 1 May 1982, in front of a crowd of 92,147, and played atcentre (Terry Day having playedcentre in the first match) in the 18-9 victory overWidnes in the1982 Challenge Cup Finalreplay during the1981–82 season atElland Road,Leeds on Wednesday 19 May 1982, in front of a crowd of 41,171,[4]
Nicknamed "Lullaby", as he so often fell asleep off the field he was anything but sleepy on it, scoring many remarkable tries including what the Yorkshire Post described as "one of the greatest solo tries of all time" in the 1983 Challenge Cup semi-final victory over Castleford, passing four Castleford players and racing around half of the length of the field without a hand ever touching him until he had crossed the line.[citation needed]
Leuluai played atcentre and scored 2-tries inHull FC's 24-28 defeat byWigan in the1985 Challenge Cup Final during the1984–85 season atWembley Stadium,London on Saturday 4 May 1985, in front of a crowd of 99,801,[5] in what is regarded as the most marvellous cup final in living memory,[6] which Hull narrowly lost after fighting back from 12-28 down at half-time.[7]
Leuluai played atcentre inHull FC's 18-7 victory overBradford Northern in the1982 Yorkshire Cup Final during the1982–83 season atElland Road,Leeds on Saturday 2 October 1982, played atcentre in the 13-2 victory overCastleford in the1983 Yorkshire Cup Final during the1983–84 season atElland Road,Leeds on Saturday 15 October 1983, and played on thewing in the 29-12 victory overHull Kingston Rovers in the1984 Yorkshire Cup Final during the1984–85 season atBoothferry Park,Kingston upon Hull on Saturday 27 October 1984.
Leuluai played atcentre inHull FC's 12-4 victory overHull Kingston Rovers in the1981–82 John Player Trophy Final during the1981–82 season atHeadingley,Leeds on Saturday 23 January 1982, played atcentre in the 12-0 victory overHull Kingston Rovers in the1984–85 John Player Special Trophy Final during the1984–85 season atBoothferry Park,Kingston upon Hull on Saturday 26 January 1985.
In 1986/7, after failing to agree a new contract with Hull he was transfer listed at £50,000. "Jimmy" subsequently played 6 games on loan to Leigh before returning to the Boulevard for 3 more games and a further 27 in 1987 / 88. In October 1988 he then signed for Wakefield Trinity, making his début in the 12-34 defeat byWigan atCentral Park,Wigan, playing 51 times over 2 seasons and scoring 12 tries. In 1990/91 he moved to Ryedale-York, playing 7 matches and scoring 2 tries before ending his UK career at Doncaster the same year with 13 games and 1 try. His last match on UK soil was a Doncaster home game to Leigh on 14 April 1991, played in front of just 1,557, a rather sad end to a great Rugby League career[8]
Such was their subsequent commitment to the British game that Leuluai, and his Hull counterparts Gary Kemble & Dane O'Hara (Fred Ah Kuoi had served 4 years with the Club at this point and so would not be eligible until the following year), saw the Government & Rugby Football League change rules and by laws regarding overseas players in 1986 to take those who had shown such commitment outside of the overseas player quotas.
After he had finished his English career, Leuluai returned to New Zealand and started playing forWellington. He helped them defeatAuckland for the first time in 75 years. It was during this time in Wellington that Leuluai began his coaching career.[9]
Leuluai was the coach of theWellington City Dukes in the1994 Lion Red Cup.[10]
During the early seasons of theBartercard Cup, Leuluai was the coach of theEastern Tornadoes.[11] He later took on the role of theJunior Kiwis in 2002.[12]
Between 2003 and 2005 Leuluai was one ofDaniel Andersons two assistant coaches with theNew Zealand national rugby league team.
After a career of coaching New Zealand representative sides, Leuluai applied for the head coaching job of theNew Zealand national rugby league team in 2005 and was heavily favoured to be appointed until he withdrew for personal reasons.Brian McClennan was appointed coach instead.
In July 2007 Leuluai again applied to coach theNew Zealand Kiwis but ultimatelyGary Kemble was appointed coach.[13] Leuluai served as assistant under Kemble.
In 2011 Leuluai co-coached theMangere East Hawks in theAuckland Rugby League competition.[14]