Alec Thomas takes a look at our coaches:
Elisi Vunipola Head Coach
Career
Vunipola debuted for Tonga in the match against Fiji in Nuku’alofa on 24 March 1990. He played the 1995 and 1999 World Cups, earning in total 6 World Cup caps. Although not taking part at the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Vunipola last played for Tonga in the match against France, in Toulouse, on 19 November 2005. At club level, he played for Sanyo, ACT Brumbies, Caerphilly RFC and Bay of Plenty.
Personal life
He is brother of the scrum-half Manu Vunipola and of the hooker Fe’o Vunipola both Tongan internationals. He is also the uncle of Fe’o’s sons, Billy and Mako Vunipola both English internationals. He is the father of fly-half Manu Vunipola.
Who played briefly for Marlborough before moving on to Saracens.
Taufa'ao Filise
(born May 26, 1977 in Malapo) is a Tongan rugby union footballer who attended Tupou College in Nuku’alofa. A prop who started his professional rugby career in 2000 with Bay of Plenty in the National Provisional Championship. He was selected the following year for Tonga, and would go on to represent Tonga 17 times, including playing at the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups. Filise would also represent the Pacific Islanders rugby union team in 2004 and 2006.
He was picked up by the Blues (Super Rugby) for their 2005 Super Rugby campaign, and then signed for Bath Rugby on a year contract following that. After his season with Bath, Taufa’ao moved to Cardiff Blues for their 2006-2007 Celtic League campaign. He was part of the Cardiff teams that won the 2008–09 Anglo-Welsh Cup and the 2009–10 European Challenge Cup. On December 19, 2015 he became the Cardiff Blues most capped player with 183 first class appearances.[2] Filise finished his career playing for the Cardiff Blues in the Pro14. During his 13 years in Cardiff,Taufa’au amassed 255 appearances, with 9 tries and became a cult figure earning the nickname "The king of Tonga".[3] His final game for the club was the European Rugby Challenge Cup final in Bilbao, which Cardiff won 31-30
David Pittams
I first started to watch Marlborough when my eldest son, Jamie, left school and started to play senior rugby in 2007. The following season 2008/09 my youngest son Joe joined the mini section as an Under 11. The 2007/08 & 2008/09 seasons were moderately successful for the seniors, but for the 2009/10 season the current Chairman Gary Sharpe took over as head coach and with his coaching and under the captaincy of Dave Lemon Marlborough achieved a 100% winning season and promotion to Southern Counties. All of this time I am just an enthusiastic parent/spectator. For the 2010/11 season things started to go badly wrong. Gary Sharpe, due to increased work commitments had less time to devote to the club. For similar reasons our influential captain Dave Lemon was unavailable for large parts of the season. From 2010/11-2011/12 the senior playing section of the club was in free fall. But there were still some encouraging aspects:
The mini/junior section under the excellent guidance of Tim Richards was thriving. Charlie Sheppy was a very steady hand on the tiller as Chairman.
It was also in this period that David Wright(Pharmaton/Compeed) stepped up in a very big way. I had met David as his son Jack and my son Joe were at the same prep school and also in the same age group all through mini/juniors. So we spent many hours on the side lines discussing the prospects of the club. And so started David's involvement. David's part in the rise and development of Marlborough Rugby Clubs success from 2012 until the present day cannot be over stated.
2012 really was the low point from a senior playing point of view. Not long after the start of the season the 1st team(we didn't have a 2nd team) had an away match v Slough. We could only find 9 players from the whole club who were willing to travel. By this time we also had no official coach, but Cain Price who had just moved to Marlborough stepped in to help out. After the Slough debacle Gary Sharpe(now Chairman), Cain and myself had a crisis meeting in The Lamb and it was at this meeting we decided to approach Boff Williams the Rugby Coach of the Royal Welsh at Tidworth to see if they could help. Moree' who had played for Marlborough from 2008 was in The Royal Welsh, so we had an introduction. Boff was enthusiastic and joined us as joint head coach with Cain. Players followed and it was from this point that Marlborough started to claw its way back. Chris Budgen, again through army connections, followed Boff and got us promoted back to Southern Counties. After Chris moved on we then landed a major coup thanks to an introduction from Tau, who had taken temporary control of coaching, and appointed Elisi Vunipola as our head coach. Elisi got the club promoted to level 6 in his first season, the highest level in the clubs history. Elisi also introduced us to Fa'ao Filise , ex Tongan international and Cardiff Blues most capped ever player, as Forwards player/coach. Player recruitment was now becoming easier, with the Compeed sponsorship and our coaching team, players knew we were a forward thinking ambitious club. For the 2018/19 season we also had Fijian 7's legend Pio Tuwai join the club as he was staying with relations at Bulford. Elisi had attracted 3 Tongan" A" Internationals to the club: Lemeki Moala, Aniseko Mone and new recruit Moni Tuiplota who is also an international 7's player.
It was also evident through this period that Marlborough, from a senior playing management and player recruitment, point of view had nothing in place. Although the mini/junior sections were very successful the number of junior players that graduated to senior rugby was very small. Although a certain amount of this can be put down to players going to university after their Colts year, it was also a problem that there seemed to be very little communication between Juniors and Seniors. Also if a new player moved into the area Marlborough was not really the first club that they would be attracted to.
Over the last few years we have made giant strides to address both of these problems. The Elisi/Fa'ao combination attracts players, it is also a great experience for the British boys to play with the Islander players, both sets of players gel exceptionally well both on and off the pitch. Also over the last 2 seasons Elisi has made a point of introducing Colts to senior rugby as soon as he and the colts coaches think they are ready. This seems to be making a difference in player retention and even if players do go away to university they are happy to travel back to play. This season the club has also appointed a new club Captain in Ben Fulton. Ben has throw himself into the roll whole heartedly, pointing out to us that he is Captain of the whole club and he is certainly acting as such. He turns up to Junior Coaches meetings and is at Marlborough every Sunday morning to help out and join in with the mini/junior age groups.
Another massive step forward for the club in the last 2 years has been the introduction of a 7's section. Again with enormous help from Compeed and organised by James Davies we are set to compete at 3 levels of 7's: Mens Elite. Womens Elite and a Mens Academy Team. In the last 7's season before the pandemic we sent teams to Las Vagas, Utah and the big one at Rugby Town in Glendale Colorado where we were actually runners up in the main competition just missing out on the$10,000 first prize.
