PLAYER PROFILE - SIONE KALAMAFONI

PLAYER FEATURE SCARLETS Vs MUNSTER

In terms of role models, they don’t get much better or tougher with the 37-cap international putting his body on the line in the tight exchanges week after week.

Asked if he enjoys the physical, gladiatorial aspect of rugby, he adds: “I wouldn’t say that I enjoy being hit, but I enjoy winning!”

Sione grew up with nine children in the house, himself the second youngest of the nine — the rough and tumble came naturally!

These days the brothers are across the pond in America and Sione is hoiping, Covid-restruictions permitting, to catch up with them next year some time.

He is no stranger to life in the States. When he was 19, he undertook missionary work in Chicago, working with teenagers to help improve their lives.

“I belong to a church called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it’s a Christian church,” he explains. “Back then, when you were 19 you volunteered to go anywhere in the world – you’d pay for it yourself. We have leaders, prophets who assign you to somewhere and I was assigned to go to Chicago, the north side. We covered a huge area of Illinois. We moved around there, it was a lot of fun. “You see a lot of good things, a lot of bad things, things that will help a teenager grow. I wouldn’t change it for anything. Those two years helped me become a little bit older and a little bit more mature.”

Back to the rugby, and after the opening two rounds of the URC that saw the Scarlets slip to a frustrating defeat in Edinburgh before turning on the style at home against the Emirates Lions, Sione acknowledges things are about to get tougher this afternoon when one of the tournament’s heavyweights roll into town.

“Everything has to go up against Munster,” he adds. “This will be the real test for us.”