Some people may not know that Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e, or PLT as he is popularly and not surprisingly known, is the 20 year-old son of Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e, the Samoan international full-back who played for Sheffield Eagles, Toronto Wolfpack and Castleford, among others, before he called it a day.
QLT, a massive attacking force from full-back, scored an astonishing 247 tries in 323 senior games in this country, mainly in his two spells at Sheffield.
And while I don’t want to put undue pressure on QLT’s boy, who is expected to make his Oldham debut at Hunslet today (Sunday), let me say at the outset that Hull KR, his parent club, have high hopes for the lad, whom they have loaned to us for the rest of the season.
No less a rugby authority than former Robins boss Tony Smith was quoted thus when Rovers signed PLT from Keighley Cougars on a two-year deal to the end of 2023:
“He’s an exciting young player and I think he’s ready for a full-time environment”
“He has a lot of his father’s attributes. It’s a great honour that he chose to come to us when a lot of teams were after his signing. It’s a major coup for us.”
Since then, Smith has crossed the city to the West, PLT has been given Number 22 in the Robins’ Super League squad; his contract at Sewell Group Craven Park has been extended to the end of the 2025 season – and the kid we have already described as a ‘Super League Rising Star’ has come to Roughyeds for the season on loan because both his club and the young fella himself regard Sean Long as the man best equipped to develop his game and to turn potential into perfection.
Where does he play best ? Well. that’s a topic for some debate and, as is often the case with multi-skilled players. comes down to opinion. The Hull Daily Mail, perhaps wisely, has described PLT as a ‘utility back’. To be more specific, he is most at home at fullback (like his dad) or on the wing – and there are some rugby nuts who argue that he has the skills and the timing to play at half-back.
He might well get his first Oldham outing at Hunslet off the bench on the wing, given that Mo Agoro and Ben O’Keefe are out injured, but not necessarily so, Longy has merely said he will make his Oldham debut at some point in the game.
Background? He was born in Brisbane and he came to this country at the age of seven, brought up in a rugby environment — at home because of his dad, at school where he was brought up in rugby union.
He played initially in the Leicester Tigers academy and switched to League with Keighley when Tigers academy wasn’t playing because of Covid. The rest, as they say, is history.
At Cougar Park, QLT and PLT played on one memorable occasion in the same Keighley team – one of the few father-son pairings ever.
On joining Oldham. PLT said:
“As a young player, I like to take as much as I can from the more experienced chaps.”
He is thrilled to come to a club like ours and feels that with Mike Ford as managing director, Sean Long as head coach, Jordan Turner as captain, and loads of talent, skill and experience in the team he has made the right choice.
