He displayed fine form in his first year of provincial rugby, playing all 10 of the Mako regular season championship games before being controversially recalled by Canterbury ahead of the competition's play-off phase.
Taufua played as a replacement in Canterbury's victories over Taranaki and Auckland, which saw them crowned ITM Cup Premiership champions, while things didn't work out quite as well for Tasman who went down to Otago in their Championship play-off semi-final match.
[5] A full Canterbury squad member in 2013, he was an ever-present as the men from Christchurch retained their ITM Cup Premiership crown, finishing second in the round-robin stage and going on to defeat Wellington 29–13 in the final.
[7] Aged just 21 and surrounded by experienced loose forwards such as Richie McCaw, Kieran Read, Matt Todd as well as George and Luke Whitelock it was largely a season of learning for the young Taufua, who made just 5 substitute appearances throughout the year.
A season spent learning from experienced pros proved to be beneficial to him as he became much more of a regular the following year, playing 14 times as the 'Saders finished as the competition's runner-up, losing narrowly 33–32 to the Waratahs in the final in Sydney.