Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nThe 29-year-old battering ram was a welcome face back at Ballymore last season, returning from one campaign at the Melbourne Rebels after a stint in England with Northampton.<\/p>\n
But the homecoming was filled with frustration and injuries early and late in the Super Rugby Pacific season limited him to just seven games.<\/p>\n
Left out of Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies squad for the British and Irish Lions tour, Salakaia-Loto unleashed brilliant cameos for the Reds, Anzac XV and First Nations Pasifika XV against the tourists, attempting to force his way in.<\/p>\n
Test caps eventually came in losses to Argentina and New Zealand before he was injured inside 10 minutes against Japan and featured just once more on the European tour.<\/p>\n
“I’m at my best with a chip on my shoulder and have something to prove,” he said when asked if the fire still burned from last year.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always had that … through the school years, coming from the public school system being second fiddle to the GPS schools.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always had to work for everything in my life.”<\/p>\n
The father of two, who has 45 caps since his 2017 Test debut, has always been able to dent defences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But in the last 12 months he has limited his errors and become more disciplined with his tackling and ruck work.<\/p>\n
“Now I’m older I know how to manage that, not be stupid and go over the edge at times,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m maturing, turning 30 this year and I’ve found what suits me and understand what my best looks like.”<\/p>\n
Salakaia-Loto’s shunting runs, momentum-changing defence and brilliant post-contact play set the platform in Friday’s impressive defeat of the Highlanders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second-rower also scored a rare try in the 31-14 win in Brisbane.<\/p>\n
They’ll travel to Canberra to face the unbeaten ACT Brumbies in a tantalising match-up that would be elevated further if Test lock Nick Frost, rested in all three rounds so far, is selected by the hosts.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t got the best record going down there against the Brums, so that’s the challenge,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They’re on a roll; no matter how many guys they’re missing they’re always doing well.<\/p>\n
“I enjoy being physical and embrace that challenge; that’s my job in this team, to take us forward.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firebrand Queensland Reds lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto has always played with a chip on his shoulder. He says the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,12061,760,85,48013],"class_list":["post-515075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-queensland-reds","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515075","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=515075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}