{"id":481923,"date":"2026-06-17T12:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481923\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T12:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:45:18","slug":"nrl-2026-state-of-origin-world-cup-this-time-kulikefu-finefeuiaki-is-playing-for-both-sides-of-his-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481923\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: State of Origin, World Cup: This time Kulikefu Finefeuiaki is playing for both sides of his family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rookie Maroons forward Kulikefu Finefeuiaki will finally be able to represent both sides of his family when he makes his State of Origin debut at the MCG.<\/p>\n

Finefeuiaki, who will play for Tonga at Rugby League World Cup 2026, has been the subject of a tug-of-war for his international allegiances between Tonga and Samoa \u2013 and that\u2019s just within his family.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old has chosen to represent Tonga, where his father was born, but he is also eligible for Samoa through his mother, as well as New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n


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\n Kulikefu Finefeuiaki’s family at the MCG after his jersey presentation ahead of Origin II.
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\u201cI was born and raised in New Zealand, and I moved to Australia when I was 12, but I have a Tonga-Samoa background,\u201d Finefeuiaki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDad\u2019s full Tongan, he moved over to New Zealand when he was 18. Mum was born in Samoa, she moved to New Zealand when she was 22 or 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made a decision to move over to Australia for a better opportunity and a better life. Footy was the way, so me playing footy is to give back to my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finefeuiaki\u2019s family moved to Ipswich, and he played for the Redbank Plains Bears before finding his way to the North Queensland Cowboys, where he made his NRL debut in 2023.<\/p>\n

Among the secondrower\u2019s team-mates was Tongan pioneer Jason Taumalolo, who inspired him to play for his father\u2019s homeland after seeing how moved he was by the prop\u2019s decision to choose the Pacific nation over New Zealand at the 2017 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Yet despite Finefeuiaki being in the Tonga squad for last year\u2019s Pacific Championships his mother couldn\u2019t hide her passion for Samoa when the Pacific powerhouses met before a record 44,682 crowd at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n


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\n Kulikefu Finefeuiaki made his international debut for Tonga at last year’s Pacific Championships.
\n \u00a9NRL Photos
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\u201cMy mum was cheering pretty hard when Samoa got up over Tonga,\u201d he said. \u201cMy dad was a bit filthy but he was proud that I was in the Tongan squad and representing not only him but our last name, as well, and our family back in Tonga and all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMum was happy too, but she was giving it to my dad a bit. I didn\u2019t play in that game, but I reckon my parents will always support whatever team I play for.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Inside camp: Kulikefu Finefeuiaki<\/p>\n

Finefeuiaki made his Test debut a week later against the Kiwis of in front of another big crowd as the Sea of Red swelled the Eden Park attendance to 38,114 \u2013 the biggest Test crowd in New Zealand for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo play my first Test was pretty special, and especially seeing how emotional my dad was when he gave me my jersey \u2026 I was about to burst into tears,\u201d Finefeuiaki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning out with the Tongan boys, especially one of the boys that started the whole movement \u2013 Jason Taumalolo \u2013 was pretty special, and to play alongside my Dolphins team-mates, Izzy (Isaiya Katoa) and Fus (Felise Kaufusi), it really meant a lot. I just can\u2019t put it into words to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s probably the highest achievement on my career so far, because I wasn’t just representing myself, I was representing my family and especially my last name.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rookie Maroons forward Kulikefu Finefeuiaki will finally be able to represent both sides of his family when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-481923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}