Sunwolves captain Michael Little has revealed how members of his team were struggling with the shock news of the sudden passing of Blues and North Harbour prop Michael Tamoaieta only hours before they pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Super Rugby history.
Samoan-born Tamoaieta, who played 10 Super Rugby games for the Blues last year, died suddenly on Friday.
An emotional Little, who joined the Sunwolves from North Harbour last year, said 23-year-old Tamoaieta's death had "hurt players all over New Zealand".
"He kind of came into Harbour the year after I did but all Kiwis kind of know each other so it did hit pretty hard. It's emotional talking about it. He's a good man and he is going to be missed," Little said, moments after the Sunwolves created history by beating the Chiefs 30-15 in Hamilton.
"We've got a huge Kiwi bunch in the crew so it hit does hit home pretty hard. It's not the news you want to hear the morning of the game. My wife rang me… and broke the news to me. It was a hard couple of hours. It's always on your mind coming into the game and I'm glad we got that performance.
