{"id":197911,"date":"2025-10-08T14:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/197911\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T14:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:06:10","slug":"former-nrl-and-leeds-rhinos-star-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/197911\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NRL and Leeds Rhinos star announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Leeds Rhinos winger David Fusitu\u2019a has announced his retirement having spent 2025 without a club following his exit from Headingley at the end of the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

Auckland-born Fusitu\u2019a<\/a>, who represented both the Kiwis and Tonga on the international stage, arrived at Leeds ahead of the 2022 campaign.<\/p>\n

He had come through the youth ranks at the New Zealand Warriors to play 108 NRL<\/a> games in their colours between 2014 and 2021, and even finished as the top try-scorer Down Under in 2018 \u2013 winning the Ken Irvine Medal as a result.<\/p>\n

But his three seasons with the Rhinos<\/a> were heavily hampered by numerous injuries, missing the 2022 Super League Grand Final against St Helens through a calf issue.<\/p>\n

Former Leeds Rhinos and NRL star hangs up boots following Headingley stint<\/p>\n

Set to turn 31 later this month, Fusitu\u2019a \u2013 who also slotted in at both full-back and in the centres at points during his career \u2013 eventually departed having scored 18 tries in 43 Super League<\/a> games.<\/p>\n

That took his career tally up to 79 tries in 153 appearances at first-grade club level when you throw in the games he played for the Wahs in the NRL.<\/p>\n

Having failed to find a club in 2025, he announced his retirement via social media earlier this week, posting on Instagram (@_davidfusitua): \u201cPutting a full stop on this part of my journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrateful to have spent the last 10+ years living out my dream. Celebrating what was, and now just loving being a fan of our great game!<\/p>\n

\u201cA01 through it all, God has always been faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The veteran also grabbed two tries in his two games for the Kiwis back in 2016 as well as five in nine games for Tonga between 2016 and 2019.<\/p>\n

His Instagram post concluded as he listed his heritage numbers for the two clubs he donned a shirt for \u2013 the Wahs and Leeds \u2013 as well as one of the two countries in the shape of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Rounding off with a nod to Tonga\u2019s famous 16-12 victory over Australia back in 2019, in which new Warrington Wolves recruit Tevita Pangai Junior scored the winning try, it reads: \u201cWarriors #183<\/p>\n

\u201cRhinos #1473<\/p>\n

\u201cKiwi #799<\/p>\n

\u201cTonga #16-12 \ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\uddf4\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Leeds Rhinos winger David Fusitu\u2019a has announced his retirement having spent 2025 without a club following his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-197911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197911","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=197911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}