Playing Career
A Te Atatu Roosters junior in the Auckland Rugby League competitions, Panapa played club football in Britain for Wigan. He represented Tokelau at the 1986 Pacific Cup, and later for New Zealand. During the 1991–92 Rugby Football League season, Panapa played for defending champions Wigan at centre in their 1991 World Club Challenge victory against the visiting Penrith Panthers. During the 1992–93 Rugby Football League season Panapa played from the interchange bench for defending RFL champions Wigan in the 1992 World Club Challenge against the visiting Brisbane Broncos.
After the 1993–94 Rugby Football League season Panapa travelled with defending champions Wigan to Brisbane, playing on at centre in their 1994 World Club Challenge victory over Australian premiers, the Brisbane Broncos.
He played for Samoa at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup.
Read more about this topic: Sam Panapa
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or career:
“What does headquarters think these guys came over here for, a sewing circle? They go up playing for keeps. Cops and robbers with rocks in the snowballs. Brass knuckles and lead pipes and a roughneck conviction they can lick any man in the world.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)