It was merely three years back when Halani Aulika, the prop for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club the London Irish was immensely overweight and was kicking himself. But all that agony was soon dispelled when a chance meeting at a petrol station convinced him to return to the sport and having arrived at the Madejski Stadium just in February last year, he has gone on to become one of the key members of the side under Director of Rugby Brian Smith.
Even as recently as 2009, it seemed that he would not be able to make it as a professional rugby player. The man admitted himself that before he started playing rugby as a professional, he was extremely overweight, and he just couldn’t control his eating and drinking habits. However, a chance conversation with Keven Mealamu, the hooker for the New Zealand international team offered the man a chance at redemption and that was something the London Irish man grabbed with both hands. His brother Luke was in charge of coaching one of the clubs based in Auckland, New Zealand and they tried to get him back into shape by getting him to train.
Aulika stated that they came to pick him up and forced him to start training, and since he started training, he has gone from being 152 kilos down to 122 kilos. He admitted that he was very lazy, overweight but it was always in the back of his mind that he wanted to earn his living by playing professional rugby.
And since being given a chance with the London Irish, Aulika is absolutely relishing each and every moment and he wants to become someone the younger players with weight problems can look up to, so that they never give up when the going gets tough.