Sio Siua Taukeiaho's parents were at their wit's end.
Tina and Muku had seen their teenaged son, like so many others living in the mean streets of south Auckland's Otara region, head down a dark path. Drastic action was required. Like preparing to buy their boy a plane ticket. One way.
"I got into a lot of trouble. It got to the point my family wanted to send me to Tonga," Taukeiaho said.
"They just had enough of me. I kept getting hidings, I was about 14 or 15 and it wasn't good, I was hanging around with the wrong blokes. It was silly.
"I grew up in pretty much a ghetto area. I was hanging out with bad boys and went off track, hanging out with the wrong crowd. I was doing a lot of silly stuff that wasn't good for me, my family didn't really like it. I didn't listen to them."
It was the same area that former Rooster Frank-Paul Nu'uausala made a name for himself as a hard man, a reputation first earned on the streets rather than in stadiums.
"It was a lot of violent stuff, hanging around with gang members, popping into cars and driving them around. I was partying," the Roosters enforcer recalled.
"The cops came to my house and I could just see my mum crying about all the bad things I used to do. I look back and wish I wasn't like that."
Having a child of his own has given Taukeiaho greater perspective on such things. But he began the turnaround well before little Leyton's arrival. The powerful forward learned there were better ways of channelling one's aggression.
"I loved league and got called up to some rep teams and started taking it serious," he said.
Premiership success came soon after with the Junior Warriors in 2011 and then selection for the Junior Kiwis. But for all of his promise, Taukeiaho played just one NRL game in his four years at the club. He broke his ankle in 2012 and then the other one the following year. When a knee injury followed, the Warriors were keen to move Taukeiaho on, despite him being on their books for a further season.
"For three years in a row, it wasn't good for me," he said.
And then a lucky break – a contract with the Roosters. It wasn't quite Tonga, but it was a life-changing trip nonetheless. He would likely have made his tri-colours debut last season rather than at the start of this one, but flew home to for the birth of his first child just as selection beckoned. With his loved ones now in Australia, it was worth the wait. Now it's time to repay the family – which includes four sisters and a cousin named after, and living with, his father – for putting up with him in his youth.
"I learned a lot from everything I've done," he said.
"I want to show my family how much I love them, that I care about them after all the hard work they have done for me. Hopefully I can do something special for their lives. I want to make my name out there and hopefully get them a house. Just for all the hard work they have done and bringing me up."
And what a name it is. Pronounced 'See-Wah Tow-Kay-ar-ho', commentators are getting plenty of practice given his involvement in the early stages of the Roosters' premiership campaign. Jackson Hastings and Willis Meehan may have higher profiles, but there's a reason why Taukeiaho has edged them off coach Trent Robinson's bench.
"It was special to get that call-up for round one and now the opportunity to stay in the team," he said.
His parents didn't come good on their Tonga threat, although he did end up there for a family reunion in his late teens. Another reminder of his background is the Tongan shield tattooed on his chest. Last year, he fulfilled a dream by representing the Pacific Nation in a Test against PNG. If he continues the form he has displayed in the opening three rounds of the season, further representative opportunities beckon.
"It was a big move from me, coming to the Roosters and leaving my family back at home," he said.
"I'm here now and loving it, the culture is good."
