{"id":323320,"date":"2025-12-18T19:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/323320\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T19:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:34:15","slug":"one-time-nrl-winner-hull-fc-cult-hero-lands-new-international-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/323320\/","title":{"rendered":"One-time NRL winner, Hull FC cult hero lands new international role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NRL star and Hull FC cult hero Sika Manu has been elected to the board of Tonga\u2019s governing body as their new National Team Representative Director.<\/p>\n

Manu, who won an NRL<\/a> Grand Final with Melbourne Storm in 2012 and then back-to-back Challenge Cups with FC in 2016 and 2017, made 13 international appearances for Tonga during his playing career.<\/p>\n

Having reached double figures in caps for New Zealand, his country of birth, prior, the forward \u2013 whose club career also saw him don a shirt in the NRL for Penrith Panthers \u2013 captained Tonga<\/a> at the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.<\/p>\n

Now 38, Manu was elected into his new role ahead of Tonga Rugby XIII\u2019s recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) having been chosen by the Mate Ma\u2019a\u2019s current squad.<\/p>\n

He becomes one of two new directors to join the board during a period of continued domestic growth for rugby league in the Pacific nation.<\/p>\n

Want more Love Rugby League? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> and ensure you never miss our exclusives and breaking news!<\/p>\n

Hull FC cult hero Sika Manu lands new international role with World Cup responsibility<\/p>\n

Having amassed 104 appearances across all competitions during his time in Super League<\/a> with Hull, Manu\u2019s playing career saw him rack up close to 300 first-grade games overall.<\/p>\n

His new role marks a natural progression from on-field leadership to shaping the future direction of the game off the field in Tonga.<\/p>\n

Manu will work under newly-appointed chairman Lord Fakafanua, who was this week elected as the country\u2019s Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere,\u00a0Lord Ma\u2019afu \u2013 who was elected by the four member clubs to the board \u2013 was elected as a Nobles\u2019 Representative to Parliament in November 2025.<\/p>\n

The Tonga Rugby XIII board has been expanded as it looks to strengthen governance structures and support a rapidly growing domestic competition.<\/p>\n

Tonga\u2019s Government has provided\u00a0310,000 Tongan Pa\u2019anga (~\u00a396,400) to Tonga Rugby XIII to fund grassroots programmes and pathways initiatives.<\/p>\n

As part of his new role, Manu \u2013 who will turn 39 next month \u2013 will have input into Tonga\u2019s preparations for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup from boardroom level.<\/p>\n

Mate Ma\u2019a\u2019s men have group fixtures against England in Perth on October 17, Lebanon in Sydney on October 24 and Samoa on November 1.<\/p>\n

Tonga\u2019s women however have not qualified for next year\u2019s showpiece having lost their qualifying semi-final against Samoa back in October 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL star and Hull FC cult hero Sika Manu has been elected to the board of Tonga\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-323320","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\/323320","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=323320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}