Watch every second of Super Rugby Pacific live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nNow, the 20-year-old has his sights set on making his Super Rugby Pacific debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoyed it, it kept me busy,\u201d Fakafanua told Rugby.com.au when asked about his huge 2025 season. \u201cI got to travel a little bit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest jump [to the senior squad] is the routine. The scheduling side of it, how many days you’re in, making sure you’re taking care of your body so you’re able to turn up and train every day is the biggest thing.\u00a0 The time spent on little details, refining small details, your game just grows\u2026 The boys and staff get around you as one of the younger fellas.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing out of school, [you\u2019ve] got a teenager’s mindset towards it. Now you’ve got to be professional in terms of how you treat your body, so that when you’re out in the paddock, you’re able to perform to the best of your ability.\u201d<\/p>\n
A major part of Fakafanua\u2019s development also came from extended time in Super Rugby AUS camps, where, despite an HIA, he got a first-hand experience working with Wallaby veteran Kurtley Beale and the Force\u2019s backs coach, James Stannard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was awesome for me to get that exposure to that level of rugby and that speed,\u201d the Force centre said of the new domestic competition.\u00a0 \u201cTo get a feel of going out to the stadium at 7 pm, for example, getting into the routine of it, getting onto the paddock and having a run against some of these boys that have played Super Rugby. I’m just a new kid on the block in that sense. I enjoyed it heavily.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s [Beale] been huge for me, just in terms of being able to see the game through his perspective and work quite closely in terms of refining the intricate details of being a back. [He is] willing to help me as well, to evolve my game as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s definitely helped me make a huge jump in the short time that we’ve been able to work together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c’Chucky’ [Stannard] and I have a good relationship. He came in while I was still training at school and ran a couple of clinics, so I’ve known him for a while.\u00a0The attacking side of the game, seeing the game through his sevens perspective, everything’s an opportunity to be creative.”<\/p>\n
The collaborative atmosphere at the Force has helped Fakafanua find his feet early, with the players there all looking to make history as the club chases a maiden finals berth in Super Rugby.<\/p>\n
The centre is keen to potentially run out alongside the current Wallabies at the Force when the season kicks off next year, but his focus towards daily improvement and earning that first cap is his next stepping stone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s easy for a young fella to feel left out, but this is not the scenario at all. The boys are very inviting, and it’s a very connected, shared locker room,\u201d Fakafanua said of the Force environment. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the most exciting things, and it makes rocking up to your job that much easier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’d be a few [I\u2019m keen to play with]. Obviously, I’ve played with a few during Super Rugby AUS, but the returning Wallabies are probably the most exciting\u2026Dylan Pietsch, Carlo [Tizzano], those big dogs would be awesome to get a run with alongside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Making a debut] is the end goal, but the process of trying to improve and develop myself as a player day by day, I think, is the best way. Taking that approach to try and improve daily, rather than being solely focused on the end goal. <\/p>\n
“If you take care of the stepping stones, it will make that end goal much easier to accomplish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A standout young gun for the Force during their Super Rugby AUS campaign, Australia\u2019s new domestic competition capped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,48013,11229],"class_list":{"0":"post-319495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-super-rugby-pacific","13":"tag-western-force"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319495","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=319495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}