By MARK CASHMAN

He doesn’t always think so but the commute “to work” for Southern Districts hooker Andrew Tuala has been a blessing in disguise.

The 30-year-old hooker and sometimes loosehead prop travels down from Newcastle to play and train at the Rebels.

It’s a good 90-minute drive to and from the Hunter and when you throw in his job as a youth worker and raising a young family of three young girls with partner Siena (10-year-old Siena, Taitua who is five, and three-year-old Telesia) it’s little wonder he sleeps well at night.

The separation from Sydney and it’s lockdown has also meant that he has been able to link up with his old club Wanderers in the local Newcastle competition while the Shute Shield has been on hold.

Tuala is one of those footy players who needs game time to get fit and as his coach at Souths Todd Louden says he can drive by a KFC and put on a couple of kilograms.

“Playing footy week to week has certainly helped me this year,” Tuala told Rugby News.

“I’ve really loved it this year at Souths and I reckon that I have played some of my best footy so it’s unfortunate that COVID and the lockdown in Sydney have forced things to stall.

“My fitness for footy is one of those things that I need to keep on top of and keep working away at.

“I’m one of those guys that if I don’t train for one week it seems like I’m pushed back two weeks if that makes sense.

Louden adds: “For a guy who’s weighting in at around 130kg he’s got some speed but for me the difference this year has been that he’s just been so consistent.

“Now his worst game is still pretty good and his core skills at first phase – line out throwing and scrummaging – have been first rate. In my mind he’s the best line out thrower in the competition.

“I’ve known Andrew since he first came to Newcastle and he’s just a really genuine guys who know goes about his preparation extremely professionally.

“He’s what you call a gamer and not so much a trainer if you know what I mean. Early in the season I tend to smash him a bit through the trials.

“That fine because he’s a bit older and is very robust and we get the best result out of that approach to bringing him up to game speed.”

Tuala has had a taste of Super Rugby making his debut in the Tahs’ 20-12 win over Super Rugby champions the Crusaders in round six of the 2019 season.

That was enough to earn a full-time contract for 2020 but dropped out of the wider group for the 2021 season until called in to play games against the Highlanders and the Chiefs in the Trans Tasman series.

He moved to the Hunter from Auckland in 2013 to join Mayfield-Easts in the Newcastle competition but Tuala and the club’s aspirations weren’t on the same page and he linked with Wanderers the next season.

Tuala then had time at Northern Suburbs before adding to his driving kilometres with the move to the other side of the metropolitan area.

He is still keen to revisit the Super Rugby scene and is hoping that new coach Darren Coleman gets the chance to see some of his work at the Rebels and now the Wanderers before settling on his first squad.

In the meantime it’s keeping the training regime going and making sure that the Wanderers are in the mix for the Newcastle competition.

A number of contracted Wildfires players have been drafted to the local clubs and Tuala says that has injected plenty of energy into the competition.

“It’s not just the same old four clubs in the semis and teams like Singleton have been playing some pretty good footy,” he said.

IMAGE: KAREN WATSON