30/01/2025
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AnX51senz/?mibextid=wwXIfr
“Before the Wallabies, I was just a boy with a dream. And the dream was to get on a plane. When I grew up, I knew exactly which plane landed in Tonga on what day. I knew the plane from Australia came at 2am and I would wake up until 2am just to go outside and watch the plane. In my heart, I longed to one day be in one. When I was captain of ‘Atele’s grade 1 rugby team, I asked Loisi-my Mum—before one of our games, ‘How many tries do I have to get so you can buy me a plane ticket to ‘Eua?’ She said about 3 or 4. I gave everything in that game and scored 4 tries. After the game, Mum said, ‘Boy, just where do you think we’ll get ticket money from?’ I knew my family struggled since I was a child. Dad had died when I was nine and life was tough. It was hard to even get 20 cents a day. There were days when I had to ask neighbours for flour just so we could have tōpai. Mum had to ask for stuff too. It was difficult to watch her ask people for things but I knew she asked because we had nothing. At school, I barely made it academically and when I went to the bush, I knew I’d have no future there. But even with our struggles, I think Mum saw something in me when it came to rugby. She sacrificed a lot and pushed me to pursue my talent. Before the opportunities came, my Mum was there pushing me and she was involved in everything I did. Daily at 5am, she woke me up to run on the main road from Vainī to Malapo then she would walk up to meet me at a certain spot. Some days I ran to Nualei and returned. Wherever I ran, Mum was walking and waiting somewhere to meet me. We would fast every first Sunday and prayed constantly. Every day after exercising, she’d have paragraphs of scriptures for me to read. I’m almost in my 30s and she’s still sending me paragraphs of counselling and scriptures. When I had the first opportunity to play and study in Sacred Heart NZ, I think it was the image of my Mum struggling and sacrificing for me that got me through those years. I was still in form 3 and I was alone.” (1/4)
