Alfie To'oala Vaeluaga (born 30 January 1980) is a professional rugby union player who can play at Flanker or at Number 8. He has an extensive rugby union career, having played club rugby in New Zealand, England and France. He has top flight experience with Bristol, Leeds Carnegie and London Welsh and has been capped 13 times by Samoa including being called up to the Samoa World Cup 2007 team as a replacement for Filipo Levi who fractured his eye socket in a warm up match against Sale. Alfie is currently a player-coach at National League 2 South side Chinnor.
Early career
Born in Samoa, Alfie Comes from the Villages of Faga, Saina & Salelavalu, Alfie moved to New Zealand as a boy and grew up in Auckland where he attended De La Salle College, a boys secondary school notable for producing rugby union players. From school he joined Otahuha, a feeder team for the Auckland Blues, playing in the Gallaher Shield at level 4 of the New Zealand domestic game. While at Otahuhu he got his first taste of silverware when he helped the club to win the Gallaher Cup held at Eden Park in July 2000 - defeating Ponsonby 24 - 13. The next year his team made it back to the final, once again facing Ponsonby, but were unable to retain their trophy as they lost 13 - 31.
in 2001 Alfie moved to England to join Rotherham for the 2001-02 season playing in the second division of English club rugby. He made an instant impression at the Yorkshire club, finishing in the top 10 of the divisions top try scorers with 13 tries, and he was also selected by Manu Samoa for their 2001-02 international tour. Rotherham also won the league title that year but were denied promotion to the Zurich Premiership as they were deemed to have failed the minimum standards criteria for entry. Despite this disappointment of missing out on promotion due to a technicality, Rotherham bounced back and won the 2002–03 National Division One for the second year running, finally gaining promotion to the Premiership, with Alfie contributing 5 tries in the league.
Unfortunately for Alfie he would not gain Premiership experience with Rotherham and instead stayed in National Division One for the 2003-04 season, signing for ambitious Lancashire side Orrell - then owned by Dave Whelan. At Orrell he had a similar impact to his first season at Rotherham, scoring 10 tries in the division and helping the club to finish as runners up to a very strong Worcester side who went undefeated all season. Failure to gain promotion to the Premiership proved to be disastrous as Dave Whelan decided to stop investing in the club, which coupled with coach Ross Reynolds leaving as a result, prompted a mass exodus of players from the club including Alfie. For the 2004-05 season Alfie remained in National Division One but moved all the way across the country to sign for Plymouth Albion who had finished in 3rd position behind Orrell the previous year. He continued to play good rugby in the division, staying at the Devon club for two seasons, and helping them to 3rd and 5th-placed finishes in the league, scoring 15 tries in the process.
Premiership & French club career
In 2006 Alfie was picked up by Premiership side Bristol who he had experience of playing against during his first season at Albion. He made 16 league appearances during the 2006-07 season as Bristol managed to stay in the division in 11th place ahead of Leeds Tykes, who were relegated instead. Initially, signed on a two-year contract, his performances on his debut season led to the club offering him a new, three-year deal. After being made part of the Manu Samoa team for their 2006-07 international tour, he also made the squad for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, making made three appearances (two from the bench) at the competition held in France, which was a disappointing one for Samoa as they failed to progress from the group stage, finishing 4th in their group behind rivals Tonga.
The 2007-08 season was a great one for Bristol as they came 4th in the league and qualified for the playoffs - a great turnaround for a club who had finished one spot off relegation the previous year - losing to eventual winners Leicester Tigers 14 - 26 in the semi-finals. Alfie made 13 appearances for the club and was called up to represent Samoa at the 2007 Pacific Nations Cup making 1 appearance for a Samoa side which finished 3rd. The 2008-09 season was Alfie's last at Bristol. Despite making the most appearances in a league season in the three years spent at the club, he would finish as part of a relegated team who only won 2 games out of 22 and would drop to the newly labelled RFU Championship.