From the Scrum to the Studio: Lama Tone on Reinvention, Identity, and Pacific Design

When Pesetā Fa‘amātuainu To‘oto‘olea‘ava Lama Tone ran out for Manu Samoa, the future looked settled: a career defined by high performance, hard tackles, and the camaraderie of the scrum. Then came the moment that changed everything — a severe neck injury in 2001 that briefly left him paralyzed and ended professional rugby.

That shock didn’t close a door so much as swing open a new one. Remembering how travel with the team had awakened a fascination with buildings, Lama enrolled at the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture as a mature student. The return to study wasn’t easy. Essays, lectures, and studio crits felt unfamiliar after years on the field. But something clicked: architecture demanded the same discipline and curiosity sport had forged in him.

Lama soon realized he was the only Pacific student in his cohort. Instead of shrinking, he turned the discomfort into a research path. Questions of identity became design questions. What does it mean to create spaces that speak Samoan? How do Pacific philosophies translate into plans, materials, and light? Those ideas culminated in his Master’s thesis, “Designing with Pacific Concepts,” a statement that culture is not an add-on — it’s a framework.

If rugby taught him how to weather storms, architecture taught him how to orient the compass. Graduating with two bachelor’s degrees and a first-class Master’s, he entered a tough market during the global financial crisis. When job offers didn’t arrive, he did what Pacific navigators have always done: set a new course. New Pacific Architecture was born — a practice dedicated to contemporary design rooted in ancestral wisdom.

Throughout the conversation, Lama returns to the metaphor of navigation. Where his ancestors read bird paths and ocean swells, he reads site lines and community needs. Both, he says, are acts of wayfinding: sensing the world, making a decision, and committing to the journey.

His story is not simply about leaving one field for another. It’s about carrying forward what sport cultivated — resilience, teamwork, and timing — and applying it to a different arena. The scrum and the studio are closer than they seem. Both demand presence. Both demand courage. And both can serve a purpose larger than the self.

Three takeaways from Lama’s journey

1. Reinvention is a skill. The muscles you build in one domain can power excellence in another.

2. Culture is design intelligence. Pacific concepts aren’t decorative—they’re generative, guiding structure and meaning.

3. We are navigators. Whether at sea or on a career path, progress comes from reading conditions and moving with intent.

Lama’s arc from elite sport to architectural leadership is a map for anyone facing a forced turn. The destination may change; the values don’t.