At some point this week, as he prepares to play in Sunday’s Pacific Cup final, Keano Kini will stop to pinch himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, this is really happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kini came within four millimetres of paralysis just eight months ago after he suffered a serious neck injury.<\/p>\n
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Kiwis v Tonga XIII – Week 3, 2025<\/p>\n
Forget wondering if he was going to play again this year, there was a chance Kini might never walk again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fast forward to today and the 21-year-old is not only back on the park, but he is set to play a key role in the Kiwis quest for Pacific Championships glory when they face Samoa in Sunday’s final at CommBank Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“At the start of the year I didn’t think I would get to this space,” Kini said. “To be here now is a blessing. I’ve been through some trials and tribulations and I thank the Lord I’m in this position now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s been a challenging year but it was meant to happen. It gave me some time to reflect on myself and my game and made me more grateful for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t say it was a setback, it actually taught me a lot of things. I had a baby, got married and a lot of good things happened from a bad situation.”<\/p>\n
Kini completed a remarkable return to the field for the Titans in Round 24, going on to play the final four games of the NRL season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was all New Zealand coach Stacey Jones needed to see to select the youngster in his Pacific Championships squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fullback rewarded Jones for his faith last week with a scintillating performance in the Kiwis dominant victory over Tonga. Kini scored a try, ran for 199 metres, broke three tackles and laid on two line breaks in a spectacular return to the international arena.<\/p>\n
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Kini excited for Titans future after signing until 2030<\/p>\n
Rather than bask in the glory of the Eden Park win, Kini has immediately turned his focus to Sunday’s final against a Samoan side New Zealand narrowly defeated in the opening week of the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be a whole different game,” Kini said. “The boys have to rest up because we’ve got a lot of sore bodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I was a little bit envious I wasn’t playing in the first game against my other culture, Samoa. I’m looking forward to playing some boys that I know there and I just want to claim the title back and get that trophy back to New Zealand.”<\/p>\n
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A debut to remember: Kini<\/p>\n
Sunday’s match will mark a changing of the guard for the Kiwis, with experienced halfback Kieran Foran to play his final game of rugby league.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kini headlines a new generation of youngsters who have burst on to the scene as New Zealand look to challenge for the World Cup next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Casey McLean and Naufahu Whyte have starred since making international debuts in 2024 and shape as key figures for the Kiwis moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All three players have opted to represent New Zealand despite holding eligibility to other countries, helping to buck a trend of players pledging allegiance to Samoa and Tonga.<\/p>\n
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McLean cleans up<\/p>\n
While the Pacific Island nations have ridden a wave of support, Kini is eager to inspire a new generation of children to grow up wanting to represent the Kiwis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You see a lot of boys going over to Tonga and Samoa but it’s awesome to see the boys here are proud to represent New Zealand,” Kini said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That’s what we need, more young talent coming through. Casey and Naufahu and all the young boys are focused on doing this jersey proud and I’m proud to be one of them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At some point this week, as he prepares to play in Sunday’s Pacific Cup final, Keano Kini will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-260318","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\/260318","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=260318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}