{"id":194203,"date":"2025-10-06T22:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/194203\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T22:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:52:08","slug":"foran-back-to-close-out-rugby-league-career-as-a-kiwi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/194203\/","title":{"rendered":"Foran back to close out rugby league career as a Kiwi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retiring Titans half Kieran Foran has been picked to represent New Zealand one last time. (Jason O\u2019Brien\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Kieran Foran will extend his career into the Pacific Championships after the retiring veteran was named in New Zealand’s 21-man Test squad to face Samoa and Tonga.<\/p>\n

Kiwis coach Stacey Jones was able to name New Zealand’s strongest squad in years on Tuesday, with only Jahrome Hughes and Kodi Nikorima unavailable through injury.<\/p>\n

It means New Zealand will have Dylan Brown and Foran available in the halves, with James Fisher-Harris captaining the group.<\/p>\n

Brisbane premiership-winning forward Xavier Willison is the only potential debutant, with all other 20 players having previously represented the Kiwis before.<\/p>\n

Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Moses Leota, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Briton Nikora, Brown and Foran are all back in the group, after missing last year’s Pacific Championships through injury.<\/p>\n

But it is the selection of Foran that is most interesting.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old had continued training after his NRL season ended with Gold Coast last month, in the hope he could finish his career in a black-and-white New Zealand jersey.<\/p>\n

The half had spoken to Jones through the finals, who reiterated that he was some chance to add to his 31 Tests.<\/p>\n

Foran’s inclusion means he will have the longest career span of any Kiwi player in history, with his international debut coming way back in his rookie NRL season of 2009.<\/p>\n

The veteran’s New Zealand farewell comes after Shaun Johnson closed out his career in similar circumstances in last year’s Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n

\"(L-R)Kieran Foran gives Shaun Johnson a pat on the back after scoring a try against Australia in 2014. (Ross Setford\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

New Zealand were disappointing in that tournament, losing to both Australia and Tonga to miss out on the Cup final.<\/p>\n

The Kiwis will host the tournament opener against Samoa in Auckland on October 19, before playing Tonga at Eden Park on November 2.<\/p>\n

They will, however, give up home-ground advantage for the final in Sydney on November 9.<\/p>\n

NEW ZEALAND SQUAD FOR PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS:<\/p>\n

Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Dylan Brown, Erin Clark, Phoenix Crossland, James Fisher-Harris (capt), Kieran Foran, Jamayne Isaako, Keano Kini, Sebastian Kris, Moses Leota, Jeremy Marshall-King, Casey McLean, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Briton Nikora, Isaiah Papali’i, Scott Sorensen, Joseph Tapine, Matthew Timoko, Naufahu Whyte,
\nXavier Willison.<\/p>\n

License this article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retiring Titans half Kieran Foran has been picked to represent New Zealand one last time. (Jason O\u2019Brien\/AAP PHOTOS)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[4764,4765,64,63,4766,1348,3355,3359,44,3356,3354,3357,760,85,3358,1346],"class_list":["post-194203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-aap","tag-aapnews","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-daily-news","tag-global-news","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-today-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194203","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=194203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}