{"id":53407,"date":"2025-08-08T17:28:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53407\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T17:28:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:28:33","slug":"newcastles-bullish-spending-slurge-continues-with-amanaki-mafi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53407\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle&#8217;s bullish spending slurge continues with Amanaki Mafi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese international No.8 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/amanaki-mafi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amanaki Mafi<\/a> has become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/newcastle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newcastle<\/a> Falcons\u2019 fifth signing ahead of the new season after agreeing a one-year deal, having spent the last four seasons playing for Japanese side Canon Eagles.<\/p>\n<p>Tonga-born Mafi, 35, scored 19 tries in 50 appearances for the Canon Eagles and will join <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/george-mcguigan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George McGuigan<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/freddie-clarke\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Freddie Clarke<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/jamie-hodgson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jamie Hodgson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/ethan-grayson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ethan Grayson<\/a> in Steve Diamond\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n<p>The powerful back-rower is renowned for his big hitting and offloading, has won 29 international caps for the Brave Blossoms and came off the bench in their famous 2015 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/rugby-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> win over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/south-africa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Africa<\/a> in Brighton.<\/p>\n<p>It will be his second stint in the Premiership after joining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/bath\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bath<\/a> soon afterwards, making seven appearances and scoring four tries, and he has also played for the Melbourne <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/rebels\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rebels<\/a> and Japanese side Sunwolves.<\/p>\n<p>A former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/tonga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tonga<\/a> under-20s international who stands at 6 feet 2 inches and weighs 117kg, he moved to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/japan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan<\/a> for university and starred for the NTT Shining Arcs, spending five seasons with them and bursting onto the international stage.<\/p>\n<p>Falcons director of rugby Steve Diamond, who is still working on more signings, admits that he is excited by the impact his new arrival can make.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmanaki is a big ball carrier with great footwork and an offloading game, and someone who will get our fans off their seats,\u201d said Diamond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe makes impacts in both attack and defence, he will bring others into the game, and I see this as a really significant signing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mafi has pledged to repay Diamond\u2019s faith for the opportunity to move to the North East at a late stage of his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a real honour to join a club like Newcastle Falcons. I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity and excited for what lies ahead. I\u2019m ready to work hard, learn, and do whatever I can to help the team,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese international No.8 Amanaki Mafi has become Newcastle Falcons\u2019 fifth signing ahead of the new season after agreeing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-53407","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\/53407","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=53407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}