[4] He also was a part of Waikato's historic Ranfurly Shield victory over Taranaki and their impressive top of the table finish.

[5] Tupaea finished sixth equal as leading try scorer in the Mitre 10 Cup, including scoring a brace of tries against Bay of Plenty and Northland.

[6] At seasons end, he achieved championship success after defeating Otago in order to gain promotion back into the top division and was awarded Emerging Player of the Year at the Waikato Rugby awards.

He proved to be one of the most consistently high performing centres in the competition, finishing 5th on the try-scoring table, with 7 tries in 9 games.

Tupaea made his international debut for New Zealand on 3 July 2021 against Tonga at Auckland.