{"id":40990,"date":"2025-08-03T19:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40990\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T19:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:05:08","slug":"moana-pasifika-flyer-joins-chiefs-on-a-two-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40990\/","title":{"rendered":"Moana Pasifika flyer joins Chiefs on a two-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Chiefs<\/a> might be losing coach Clayton McMillan, Anton Lienert-Brown<\/a> and Aiden Ross for the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> season, but they\u2019ve picked up exciting young winger Kyren Taumoefolau<\/a> from Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old winger has been exceptional for Moana Pasifika<\/a> in the past two years and has now inked a 2-year deal with the Hamilton-based franchise for 2026.<\/p>\n

Taumoefolau, who has scored 12 tries for Moana Pasifika in 21 appearances, will be eligible for the All Blacks<\/a> in October of 2026, after making six appearances for Tonga<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

The new Chiefs addition is confident that the Hamilton-based franchise was the best option for him going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved my journey so far and I\u2019m really proud of what I\u2019ve been able to achieve with Moana Pasifika,\u201d Taumoefolau told the Chiefs in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it came time to make a decision about what\u2019s next, I took a lot of time to think about what was right for me and my whanau.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoining the Gallagher Chiefs felt like the best option to keep growing and developing as a player, and I\u2019m excited for the next challenge and grateful for the opportunity to be part of a team and culture that I really believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Chiefs head coach Jono Gibbes, who is replacing McMillan, says that Taumoefolau is an exciting addition to their backline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that he had plenty of options both in New Zealand<\/a> and abroad, so to get the opportunity to continue to grow and develop his game in the next phase of his career is very exciting for us. It\u2019s a responsibility that we take very seriously,\u201d Gibbes told the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyren is a player with immense potential, and he embodies many of the values we stand for. We know he\u2019ll thrive in the Chiefs Rugby environment, both on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chiefs CEO Simon Graafhuis is looking forward to seeing the energy that the young winger will bring to an already motivated group of players and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a player that rugby fans have enjoyed and I\u2019m sure will love watching in Chiefs colours. We\u2019re looking forward to his raw skill, speed and enthusiasm that he\u2019ll bring to our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chiefs might be losing coach Clayton McMillan, Anton Lienert-Brown and Aiden Ross for the 2026 Super Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-40990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40990","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=40990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}