Lesley Vainikolo

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**Lesley Vainikolo**
Personal information

Full name	Lesley Vainikolo
Date of birth	May 5, 1979
Place of birth	Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Nickname	The Volcano
Position	Wing
Professional clubs*
1997-2001 2002-	Canberra Bradford	68 (35) 126 (128)
National team
1998-2005	New Zealand	12 (14)
* Professional club appearances and (tries) counted for the domestic league only.

Lesley Vainikolo (born May 5, 1979 in Tonga to New Zealand parents) is a New Zealand rugby league player for the Bradford Bulls in the English Super League competition. He also previously played for the Canberra Raiders in the National Rugby League competition. Vainikolo has also played on several occasions for New Zealand at international level, including several Tri-Nations appearances. His position of choice is on the wing.

1 Childhood and early career
2 Canberra Raiders
3 Bradford Bulls
4 New Zealand
5 Career playing statistics
- 5.1 Point scoring summary
- 5.2 Matches played
6 External links
7 Notes and references

[edit] Childhood and early career

Lesley Vainikolo grew up playing rugby union but switched to rugby league as he explains, "I first got into rugby league when I was 11. One of my mates got me into it. His team were short on numbers and my mate asked if I wanted to play. I grew up playing union, so I had the basic skills. I played the game and absolutely loved it. And I've been hooked since."^[1]

[edit] Canberra Raiders

Lesley Vainikolo explains that he "had two big league heroes when [he] was younger - Allan Langer and Mal Meninga." So when Vainikolo "got a call from Mal [Meninga] to join the Canberra Raiders, [he] had no hesitation."^[1]

In 1998, Lesley Vainikolo began his professional rugby league career at Canberra Raiders in the Australian National Rugby League competition. In his first season for the club he was voted as the Canberra Raiders rookie of the year. While playing for the Raiders, Vainikolo was dubbed by Australian rugby league commentator Peter Sterling as 'The Volcano'. The reason for this is because Sterling found the player's surname difficult to pronounce and shortened it to "Volcano" and he has been called this nickname ever since.

[edit] Bradford Bulls

He made his debut in the 2002 World Club Challenge against the Newcastle Knights in January. However, his first season with the club in 2002 was disrupted by injury. He scored only 13 tries in 24 appearances. In his second season with the club he scored an impressive 28 tries in 32 appearances. He was voted as the best rugby league player in the world in 2003. He lived up to that accolade in the following season by breaking the Super League try scoring record by scoring 37 tries in only 26 appearances, including five hat-tricks.

Again in 2005 his season was disrupted with injury, although he still managed to score a remarkable 34 tries in 23 appearances. During the 2005 rugby league season his contract was due to expire at the end of the season and Vainikolo received what he says was "a very big offer"^[2] from Gloucester Rugby Club, who play in the leading English rugby union competition the Guinness Premiership. However, Vainikolo declined the offer and decided to remain with the Bradford Bulls until the end of the 2009 Super League season. After signing the contract, Lesley Vainikolo's coach at the time, Brian Noble stated "Lesley is a world-class player and was in big demand from both union and league clubs. To manage to keep him in rugby league says a lot for the sport and also the Bradford Bulls."^[2] At the end of the 2005 season Lesley Vainikolo had scored a remarkable 112 tries in 105 appearances for the Bulls.

So far in the 2006 Super League season, Vainikolo has scored 11 tries in 12 appearances. Interestingly, since joining the Bradford Bulls he has scored 22 tries against Hull FC.

[edit] New Zealand

Lesley Vainikolo made his first international appearance for the New Zealand national rugby league team in 1998. He has scored fourteen tries in twelve appearances for his nation, including nine tries in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. He was ruled out of the 2005 Rugby League Tri-Nations series.