Uini Atonio

French tighthead prop Uini Atonio is one of the most physically imposing scrummagers in the modern game. Born on 26 March 1990 in Auckland, he was recruited to La Rochelle as a young professional and has since spent the bulk of his career at the Stade Rochelais, accumulating hundreds of Top 14 appearances and becoming a symbol of the club's rise. Qualification through residency opened the door to a France cap in 2014, and after a period on the fringes of Les Bleus he returned to the senior squad with renewed conditioning and form, playing a central role in France's 2022 Six Nations Grand Slam campaign and their 2023 Rugby World Cup run on home soil. At club level Atonio has been a cornerstone of La Rochelle's back-to-back European Champions Cup victories in 2022 and 2023, providing an immovable right-side of the scrum around which Ronan O'Gara's side has built much of its forward dominance. His role is unapologetically traditional: generate scrum penalties, dominate close-range collisions, and take short, hard carries in the tight channels. For both club and country, he remains a player opponents plan around at set piece.