Samson Ma'asi rugby player
Samson Ma'asi rugby player

Samson Ma'asi

9th Feb 2000 1.80m/100kg Hooker

Son of Viliami – who played for Cornish Pirates, Yorkshire Carnegie, London Welsh, Ampthill and Tonga – Ma’asi started his rugby at Stanningley in West Yorkshire at just five years old.

The hooker later moved to Ampthill and won their Player of the Year award for three successive seasons before being picked up by Saints Academy as a 13-year-old.

Rising through the ranks at Saints, Ma’asi featured for Saints’ Under-18s before earning the call-up to England Under-18s in March 2018 – making his debut days later at Murrayfield as England beat Scotland 64-0.

A month later the hooker was back at Franklin’s Gardens and donned the Black, Green and Gold jersey for the first time, coming off the bench for his first senior Club appearance in the Mobbs Memorial Match against the British Army.

Ma’asi then signed his first professional contract to join the Senior Academy ahead of the 2018/19 season.

He also represented England at Under-18s and Under-20s level, starting for his country on home soil in Northampton as Franklin’s Gardens hosted a Six Nations clash against Scotland in 2019.

However, illness curtailed Ma’asi’s progress that summer as he was forced to take some time away from rugby to undergo a kidney transplant – and despite the young hooker returning to training at Franklin’s Gardens in 2020, he decided to hang up his boots in September 2021 to focus on his health.

(LS September 8, 2021)



Career

england England U20's
Hooker
2019 - 2019
nh-saints Northampton Saints
Hooker
2018 - 2021