its gripping 24-19 loss to the British and Irish Lions in Melbourne on Tuesday evening<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Lions desperately clung to a five-point lead during the final 10 minutes before prevailing against a team who had only come together as a squad last week.<\/p>\n
They were also appearing for the first time, having been included on the Lions tour schedule following RA’s decision to axe the Melbourne Rebels last year.<\/p>\n
Beale hoped the First Nations and Pasifika XV could become a regular feature on the Australian rugby calendar, in the same way the M\u0101ori All Blacks play annual matches in New Zealand and overseas.<\/p>\n
“This is a fantastic concept that needs to continue,” said Beale, who has played 95 Tests for the Wallabies.<\/p>\n
“Whether that’s as a warm-up match for the Wallabies in years to come or building up to a game against the M\u0101ori All Blacks \u2026 I think bigger picture and I think it’s definitely needed in our game.”<\/p>\n
![\"Garry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/df6764329cf366c3570c5667de2c8782\")
<\/p>\n
Kurtley Beale (right) was immensely proud of his team’s performance. (Getty Images: Morgan Hancock)<\/p>\n
Beale, a Darug man, was one of six First Nations players in the squad, which also represented the Samoan, Fijian, Tongan, M\u0101ori and Cook Islands cultures.<\/p>\n
“It’s been a real special week for everyone involved,” Beale said.<\/p>\n
“To be able to represent your family name, your culture \u2014 it’s a really special experience to be able to come together and share stories about where you come from.<\/p>\n
“We all come from similar backgrounds. That was a powerful moment and that allowed us to connect and I think that showed in the performance tonight.”<\/p>\n
Beale said he and his teammates wanted to inspire the next generation of First Nations and Pasifika players.<\/p>\n
“I think to bring talent through and create pathways for those kids is what it’s all about,” he said.<\/p>\n
“As a squad, we’re very proud to do that and represent them at this level.”<\/p>\n
‘Family comes first’<\/p>\n
The First Nations and Pasifika XV was coached by Tonga-born Wallabies great Toutai Kefu, who said he was “unbelievably proud” of the team’s performance against the Lions.<\/p>\n
Kefu shared Beale’s enthusiasm to have the First Nations and Pasifika XV become part of the Australian rugby landscape.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a great concept, it’s another pathway for our rugby players,” Kefu said.<\/p>\n
![\"Toutai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2f917be326ce90085aae3b3aa074d6bc\")
<\/p>\n
Toutai Kefu wants the First Nations and Pasifika XV to continue in coming years. (AAP: James Ross)<\/p>\n
Kefu said the formation of the First Nations and Pasifika XV went beyond rugby.<\/p>\n
“For us, it’s probably the connection piece, just getting to know each other,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The good thing about our cultures, and this is the Indigenous and the Pasifika, family comes first \u2026 connecting is very easy for us, so we build on that and reinforce that.”<\/p>\n
The performance of some of the First Nations and Pasifika XV players would not have gone unnoticed by Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt ahead of the second Test against the Lions at the MCG on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, who is of Samoan heritage, impressed with his physicality on both sides of the ball and there were calls for the lock to be included in Schmidt’s squad for the second Test even before Tuesday’s match.<\/p>\n
Kefu said he believed Salakaia-Loto had “thrown his hand up” for a Test recall after being overlooked for the first Test, which the Wallabies lost 27-19 in Brisbane last weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n“His performance, I thought, was outstanding,” said Kefu, who starred for the Wallabies when they beat the Lions 2-1 in their 2001 series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kurtley Beale has urged Rugby Australia (RA) to make the First Nations and Pasifika XV a permanent fixture,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,1378,11124,10578,647,760,2633,85,231,15787,2500],"class_list":["post-14365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-british-and-irish-lions","tag-first-nations-and-pasifika-xv","tag-kurtley-beale","tag-melbourne","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-sports","tag-test","tag-toutai-kefu","tag-wallabies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}