Ruben Wiki: 'The game is more natural to us.' (Photo courtesy of the Warriors.)

New Zealand has two of the best sides in world rugby league with our Kiwi and Kiwi Ferns. Both men’s and women’s sides have a predominantly Polynesian look. What do Pacific Island families and communities get from the game?

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Olivia Caldwell.

With 55 caps Ruben Wiki has played more test matches for New Zealand than any other player. Immersed in Samoan culture during his Otara upbringing, Wiki knows what it is like to come from humble beginnings to reach the top of his game.

Wiki says it is this modest environment that encouraged him to play rugby league. It was his mother who first introduced him to the game by taking him down to watch his local club.

After that there was no looking back for the young league enthusiast: “We would play whenever and wherever we could. We played on the road, on the tennis courts, you name it. We played league. It didn’t matter if it was concrete, we just played,” Wiki says.

It is that small community, go-getter attitude that makes league so popular among Pacific Island youth through to national level, he says.

“I think it’s the nature of the game, how we have been brought up with league. I think coming from grassroots, South Auckland we’ve got people who only know league and so just play the game. It is more natural to us.”

Family ties

A Kiwi Fern for 15 years, eight of which she captained the side, Luisa Avaiki echoes that League is just a natural development for Polynesians growing up in New Zealand, especially Auckland.

“We just love the aspect of a sport that is really physical, I think it’s just the way we are built. We like being able to beat an opponent or being able to tackle them. It’s just that contact.”

Avaiki says that because of the huge emphasis Pacific Island culture has on family, it is natural for them to enter a team environment that reflects that same familial feel.

“We Pacific Islanders are always around family, both our immediate and also our extended family. So it’s natural for us to go into a team environment because that’s what we do at home.”

It is family support that these talented players are striving for each time they lace up their boots and step out onto the playing field, says Avaiki: “Pacific Island kids have to know that they are being supported in something they’re good at. They really need affirmation. If they know that their parents are really proud of them because they are doing something and they’re doing it well, then that is motivation for them to keep going.”

“The good thing about European players is they will work hard to do it for themselves. Islanders think it is not just about them, it is about their mum, their dad and extended family.”

Wiki says that this relationship works both ways between the parents and the players. There is a mutual respect that they both have for each other: “It gives them some identity. With their sons or daughters playing sport for our country. I think it’s part of the culture, they love playing in front of their parents all through their sport and that’s why we go on to play for New Zealand.”

Mother and mentor

For Pacific Island players’ rugby league is a family affair. The Mani family is a great example of this, with mother Lynley Tierney-Mani playing for the Kiwi Ferns side for over a decade and is now coaching them while her son, Ephrym Mani, is trying to crack into the NRL.

Mani says ever since he first picked up a ball at age five, his mother has encouraged him to excel in the game: “I was going to give up one season and mum said, why don’t you give Mt Albert a go. She said otherwise you will never know.”

Mother and mentor Lynley Tierney-Mani, who now coaches the Kiwi ferns side, says that seeing players struggle and work hard to get somewhere in league is nothing new.

“I can’t remember meeting anyone who has cracked into the professional side of the sport that doesn’t have a hardship story of how they got there. They talk about how many jobs they had to work or how hard it was to juggle family life, study and work just so they could make trainings and games,” Tierney-Mani says.

She says that often through these struggles we see success stories develop: “Then there’s how many injuries they had to over come and how many times they thought they would never achieve their dream.”

Colour and passion

Tierney-Mani says: “Pacific Islanders bring with them colour, life and culture to a sport that has a lot of boundaries. They also bring passion and strong work ethic with the desire never to give up, these are the ones that you will see succeed.”

With Māori from his mother’s side and Cook Island heritage from his father, league certainly runs through young Mani’s blood: “Mum and Dad played league, Mum’s a Kiwi coach. It just runs in the family. They always like to claim me and say that’s my son, I taught him that.”

Mani says that league has been the steady ship in his life as it has kept him level headed and on track: “I don’t know where I’d be without league. It keeps me on my feet and keeps me out of trouble. If I wasn’t playing league I don’t know what I’d be doing.”

Fellow Aucklander, Siva Fisiiahi says that he too has been grounded by the 13-man game. The 19-year-old Junior Warrior representative says that the league environment “Separates the boys from the men”.

Siva Fisiiahi: Grounded by the 13-man game.

Fisiiahi’s influences in league have been his older twin brothers, his coaches, his teammates and several role models of the game. The talented Tongan fullback says that he also wants to be a role model for younger players than himself.

Character-building

“There’s a goal that I set for myself and I am kind of halfway there. There’s obviously quite a few Polynesians play league and it’d be cool for them to follow in my footsteps as well.”

Ruben Wiki says that aside from being a game, rugby league has a character-building role for young Polynesian players: “I think any sport our Polynesian brothers and sisters choose gives them character. When I first started I wouldn’t say boo, I wouldn’t say two words to the media and now I can’t stop. I think it’s a learning curve for people coming from humble beginnings and venturing out into the world.”

He says that professional players play a bigger role than just footy itself by setting a good example for the up-and-comers of the game: “Sonny Fai was a fine example. Family does come first and he showed that with all his heart. He would have been around a long time with New Zealand rugby league,” he says.

“Manu Vatuvai is from South Auckland, he grew up in the same hood. Look at him now. He’s one of the most individual, sought after people in the game. He’s courageous and a gentleman. On the field he’s business and then off it he’s a teddy bear,” Wiki says.

Awesome role model

Luisa Avaiki says there is no bigger role model in the game than Wiki himself. She says that he is the perfect example of a humble South Aucklander making the big time.

“Ruben has achieved so much in rugby league and he never forgets where he comes from. He is always proud that he comes from South Auckland, he’s always proud that he’s Samoan Māori. That’s an awesome role model for our young people and that it is okay for them to be themselves and still be successful.”

Wiki contemplates achievement: “I don’t believe that any young person is a failure. If someone is willing to support them and work with them, then they can be successful. I look at what I have achieved through league and then say well there’s no reason others can’t do the same,” Wiki says.

“If someone just believes in them and works alongside them then they can as well.”

Showing that he is more than just a veteran of the game, Wiki, the boy from Otara, South Auckland, sounds out some motivational words for any self-doubters.

“Anyone who is struggling for a career, it doesn’t matter where you come from or what ethnic group you’re in. If you put your mind to it and have the support of your family, you can conquer the world,” he says.

Olivia Caldwell is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.