New coach for Cavan RFC

The times they are a-changin' at Swellan Park, with a new men's captain, a thriving ladies section and plans to develop the playing facilities. Added to this is the arrival of the exoctically-named Tumaile Tasola, a Tongan with roots in New Zealand who has taken the reins as club coach.
The Anglo-Celt's Paul Fitzpatrick caught up with the 33-year-old former All Ireland League Division One stalwart following his first training session at the helm last Thursday evening at Swellan. This was your first night at Swellan Park with the squad, how do you think it went? It was good, for a first training I was very impressed with the effort the boys showed.
Is this your first coaching role? I did a bit of coaching with Carlow college before.
What is your background in the game? I was born in Tonga but grew up in New Zealand and played all my rugby there. I played for New Zealand Universities team and Auckland and I also played for West Coast. The club that I played for in Ireland was Carlow and for Sunday's Well in Cork in Division One of the AIL. I played in the backrow. How did you come to end up in Cavan, having been based in Cork and having played for Carlow as well? I've got a good friend who lives here, Salesi Tuipulotu , he married a Cavan girl. I have been here visiting a few times and the people are very friendly and I decided to give it a go. Have you seen Cavan play before and if so, what is your impression of the squad? I had seen them play a couple of games last year and something that attracted me was that there are a lot of young players. There are a lot of gaelic guys and they just need to be shown the basics, there are a lot of young guys who are willing to learn. Last year they just had a captain who was running the show, hopefully this year we can improve some of the team's results.
What is your realistic aim for the new season - is there a long-term plan in mind? The aim is to do a lot better than last year. My goal is to make top four in the league. I'm living in Cavan now, I'll do this year and see how it goes. I see it more like a development thing, I can't wait for the season to start, to see where we stand. Our first league game is against Letterkenny, I think we have about six weeks. There is a friendly game against Enniskillen coming up too..
Yeah, we'll see who's available for that and give it a go to see where we are at. There is a new captain, so there are a lot of changes which I think will be a good thing. Having played at a high level both in this country and in your native New Zealand, do you feel you are at an advantage when it comes to coaching at this level? I think that's the thing, basically I'm sharing what I went through, the high things and the low things, I just want to share that with the young lads. So have you hung up your playing boots for good? I'm still playing and I hope toplay with Cavan this year, so I'll be a player-coach.