The Training, Nutrition & Resources I Wish I’d Had When I WAS YOUR AGE.
From a kid in Samoa with a dream and no roadmap, to 53 caps in the black jersey. Everything I learned the hard way built into one place. For you.
Talent Opens Doors. Preparation Keeps Them Open.
I grew up in Moto’otua, Samoa. One of eight kids. We didn’t have a gym, or nutritionist, or a strength and conditioning programme. What we had was a patch of grass, a rugby ball, and each other.
When I got the chance to move to New Zealand I thought I’d arrived. I was playing alongside guys who’d go on to become All Blacks, and we were good. But I was raw. I had no idea how to train properly or how to eat for performance. No idea how to prepare my body for what professional rugby was going to demand of it.
I figured it out the hard way. Trial and error. Watching. Copying. Getting it wrong. Getting injured because I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
It took me years to learn what I could have learned in months if someone had just given me the roadmap.
I went on to earn 53 test caps, play in two Rugby World Cups, and line up in the 2023 World Cup final against South Africa at the Stade de France. But the path wasn’t a straight line. Not even close.
Nobody handed me a programme, so I created one for you.
I built NL Str3ngth from scratch through injuries, setbacks, and years of learning the hard way.
Get the guidance, structure, and support I wish I'd had from day one.
EVERYTHING YOU'LL NEED TO
Build The Foundations Of An Elite Athlete
YOU'VE GOT THE DREAM. LET ME GIVE YOU THE ROADMAP TO ACHIEVE IT.
Wherever you are, you’re probably dealing with the same thing I dealt with:
too much information and not enough direction.
I see it everywhere.
Young players with all the talent in the world, held back by things that are completely fixable: poor programming, poor nutrition, no recovery protocols, no understanding of what their body actually needs at their stage of development.
School coaches do their best, but they’re not strength and conditioning specialists. Academy programmes are competitive and limited. And the fitness industry is selling you programmes designed for bodybuilders, not rugby players.
NL Str3ngth exists to be the resource I never had. Accessible. Affordable. Built by someone who’s been where you are.
Nepo Laulala
Built FROM Experience
53
All Blacks Test Caps
2
Rugby World Cups
15+
Years of Professional Rugby
The best coaching in rugby is usually locked behind professional contracts. By the time you get access, the habits are already formed.
I'm here to change that.
Get Access to Nepo & other Top-Level Players with NL Str3ngth.
Giving Young Players A Better Start
I’ve been asked a hundred times what I’m going to do when rugby’s done. And the answer has always been the same: give back.
If someone had handed me that knowledge when I was a teenager in Samoa, hungry to make it but not knowing where to start, who knows how different the path might have looked.
I can't change my own journey, and I wouldn't want to. But I can take what I've learned and pass it on to the players coming through now, so they can move forward with more confidence and support than I ever had.
NL Str3ngth is about making access equal. The kid in Samoa, the kid in South Auckland, the kid in a small town in the UK — they deserve the same quality of programming that a contracted professional gets.
Train Like an All Black
Workout programmes • Meal plans • Conditioning • Guides • Community
Looking after your body isn't optional. It's what gives you the chance to stay in the game AND keep improving.
At the start of 2016, I had a catastrophic knee injury that damaged three of my knee's key stabilizing ligaments and ripped my quad muscle off the bone. My doctor told me I’d probably never play rugby again. But I couldn't quit.
I retrained everything from the ground up with smart programming, careful rehabilitation, and a level of discipline I didn’t know I had in me.
In 2017, I was starting in the All Blacks. I played nine tests that year. The coaches said the player who came back was different from the one who’d been injured. Hungrier. More mature. Harder to stop.
In 2018, I broke my forearm. Another seven months out. And then, in France with Toulouse after the 2023 World Cup, I ruptured my Achilles tendon. Released mid-season. On the brink of retirement again. Another conversation about whether this was the end. It wasn’t. I’m playing for Gloucester in the English Premiership right now.
Three career-threatening injuries. Three comebacks. And the single biggest reason I’m still playing professional rugby at 34 isn’t talent. It’s programming. It’s knowing how to train smart and fuel my body. How to rehabilitate with intention. How to build a foundation so strong that when the worst happens — and it will happen — you can come back from it.
That’s what I want to give you.
Questions You Might Have
What age is this for?
NL Str3ngth is designed for rugby players aged 15 and up. Whether you’re in school, in an academy, between contracts, or playing club rugby and dreaming of more — the programming scales to where you are.
I’m not a forward. Is this still for me?
The training principles are position-aware, not position-locked. Scrummaging power and backline speed are built on the same athletic foundation: strength, conditioning, nutrition, and recovery. Backs and forwards both need all four.
Do I need a gym?
Gym access is ideal for the strength programmes, but conditioning templates can be done with minimal equipment. The nutrition, guides, and community access require nothing but a phone. I built this to be accessible — not everyone has a full gym, and that shouldn’t be a barrier.
What makes this different from a generic strength programme?
Every programme online is written by someone who trains athletes. This one is written by the athlete. I’ve been the player in the scrum, the player on the rehab table, the player trying to make weight, the player trying to come back from an injury doctors said was the end. The programming reflects what I’ve actually used — not what looks good in a textbook.
Can I really talk to Nepo?
Yes. The community is real and I’m in it. I answer questions. I share what I’m doing in my own training. I bring in other top-level players to share their experience. This isn’t a faceless app. It’s a community with me at the centre of it.
My son/daughter wants to join — is it safe for developing athletes?
The programming is designed with developing athletes in mind. Progressive, age-appropriate, and built around longevity — not short-term gains that break young bodies. I’ve come back from three serious injuries. Injury prevention isn’t an add-on here. It’s built into everything.
I’m in a small town / the Pacific Islands — will this work for me?
This was built for you. I started in Samoa with nothing but a dream and a rugby ball. NL Str3ngth is designed to be accessible wherever you are in the world. All you need is a device and the willingness to put in the work.