Matafeo George Latu is a barrister and solicitor. He is a former dual international rugby union player.
Career
On attending Canterbury University to study law, Latu played for the University Club in Christchurch where his contemporaries included Todd Blackadder and Steve Hansen. He represented both his father's country Tonga, as a member of the Ikale Tahi National team from 1993 to 1994, and then his mother's country Samoa, in the Manu Samoa National team from 1994 to 1996. He played in the Manu Samoa team in the 1995 Rugby World Cup hosted in South Africa, where he replaced the injured rugby legend Papali’itele Peter Fatialofa. Latu was a specialist tighthead prop and first played rugby whilst a boarder at New Plymouth Boys High School in New Zealand. He played in Christchurch, New Zealand in the 1990s including a few games at representative level for Canterbury, and played the 1996 NPC season for Southland in Invercargill, before returning to Samoa to take up a state solicitor role in the Samoa Attorney Generals Office. His first international cap was in 1993 for Tonga, and for Samoa during a match against Tonga, at Moamoa, on June 4, 1994. He was part of the 1995 Rugby World Cup roster, where he played three matches. His last international cap was during the Manu Samoa tour of the British Isles in 1997.
After career
Latu has been Club Captain of Vaimoso Rugby Club an honorary solicitor for the Samoa Rugby Union; He was appointed as a Judicial Officer for IRB until his election as Secretary of the SRU in 2015. He was made Vice Chairman in 2016, a position which he held until 2018. Latu has been a commentator for rugby matches for Samoa TV1 along with Mathew Vaea. As of February 2016, he was appointed as Samoa representative for Oceania Rugby. Latu is the Managing Partner of Latu Lawyers, a law firm located in Apia Samoa, and is in partnership together with his wife Taulapapa Brenda Heather-Latu, a former Attorney General of Samoa and Crown Counsel with the Crown Law Office, New Zealand. The firm specialises in banking and commercial transactions. The partners also undertake legal consultancies both locally and regionally.
