Filipo Daugunu (born 4 March 1995) is a rugby union player who plays for the Melbourne Rebels in the Super Rugby competition. His position of choice is wing.[1] Fijian-born, Daugunu moved to Australia in 2016 at the age of 20 to pursue a professional sporting career. He was selected to play international rugby for Australia in October 2020.[2]
Daugunu started his sporting career playing football for his local district football team, Labasa Football. He played both as a goalkeeper and a striker, and became a regular in the Labasa team in 2013.
In 2015, Daugunu gave up an association football career to play rugby union,[3] representing Fiji Under-20 at the World Rugby Junior Trophy in Portugal.[4] He was involved with the Fiji 7s program in 2016,[3] but opted out of joining the team to play on the world circuit.[5] He moved to Brisbane, Australia and began playing club rugby there.[5]
Daugunu gained significant attention in Queensland Premier Rugby after scoring sixty-six points from eleven appearances for Wests Bulldogs in 2017. After helping Wests to their first finals appearance in ten years, losing 24–22 to Sunnybank in the semi-finals, he was recruited to play in the National Rugby Championship (NRC) for Queensland Country.
Daugunu scored seventy-one points in just eight appearances for Queensland Country on the way to club's first national title. He scored a hat-trick in the final against the Canberra Vikings which was instrumental to Country's 42–28 win.[6][7]
Because of his performances in the NRC, the Queensland Reds signed him in late 2017 to join their squad for the 2018 Super Rugby season.[8][9]
As of 20 November 2021[10]