{"id":240464,"date":"2025-11-03T01:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240464\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T01:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:10:10","slug":"chiefs-announce-the-signing-of-wallabies-and-waratahs-midfielder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240464\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs announce the signing of Wallabies and Waratahs midfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

International season is in full swing, but there\u2019s no stopping the Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> franchises from strengthening their squads for the 2026 season that starts in February.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs, under new head coach Jono Gibbes, have today announced the signing of capped Wallabies midfielder Lalakai Foketi<\/a>, who will return to Hamilton after being born in the New Zealand<\/a> city back in 1994.<\/p>\n

The nine-Test Wallaby has made 85 appearances for the Waratahs<\/a> over a seven-year stint at the Sydney-based franchise, after playing for Bay of Plenty<\/a> in the Bunnings NPC<\/a> and the Chiefs<\/a> development team in the Dave Rennie era.<\/p>\n

Foketi joins Tyrone Thompson<\/a> as the second off-season signing for the Chiefs, who will be looking to go one better in next year\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old midfielder is excited to be back in New Zealand, where it all started, saying he can\u2019t wait to be part of the Chiefs family again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be coming back to where it all began and be a part of the Chiefs family,\u201d Foketi says.<\/p>\n

\u201cA massive thank you to everyone in the organisation for allowing me to come back and test myself to be a better player and person in 2026. I can\u2019t wait to get stuck in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbes, who will take charge of his first season as head coach of the Chiefs in their 30th year as a franchise, says that bringing Foketi back into the environment was crucial because of his International experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cLalakai is a quality player who brings international experience and an understanding of what Chiefs Rugby is all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to welcome him back into our environment and look forward to seeing his maturity play out both on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chiefs get their 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season underway against the Blues<\/a> on February 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International season is in full swing, but there\u2019s no stopping the Super Rugby Pacific franchises from strengthening their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-240464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}