{"id":635286,"date":"2026-06-12T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/635286\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:14:09","slug":"lalakai-foketi-ospreys-sign-australia-centre-from-new-zealand-side-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/635286\/","title":{"rendered":"Lalakai Foketi: Ospreys sign Australia centre from New Zealand side Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foketi, 31, was born in New Zealand before his family moved to Australia.<\/p>\n

He played for Australia Under-20s and made his Super Rugby debut for Melbourne Rebels in 2014 before leaving to play for French side Bayonne later that year.<\/p>\n

Foketi returned to New Zealand where he played a couple of seasons for Bay of Plenty in the Mitre 10 Cup competition before linking up with the NSW Waratahs from 2018 until 2025.<\/p>\n

Foketi was given his first Australia cap as a replacement in the 29-28 defeat against Wales<\/a> in Cardiff in November 2021, before appearing three times in the 2023 World Cup in France.<\/p>\n

Foketi played for the First Nations and Pasifika XV against the British and Irish Lions on the 2025 summer tour of Australia before leaving Waratahs later that year.<\/p>\n

He joined Hamilton-based Chiefs for the 2026 campaign and will be involved in the Super Rugby final next weekend.<\/p>\n

Foketi was instrumental in the semi-final win against Crusaders with three try assists, the joint most of any centre in a Super Rugby game since 2020.<\/p>\n

“This is another great bit of news for the club and our supporters,” said Ospreys head coach Mark Jones.<\/p>\n

“Lalakai is an experienced international who can immediately make a real contribution for us on and off the field.<\/p>\n

“He’s a real all-rounder at centre with what he can offer on the ball and in defence, and we feel he will add even further quality to our already talented group of centres. <\/p>\n

“He’s got a few points of difference that will bring a new dimension to our attack, and we’re excited to utilise that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Foketi, 31, was born in New Zealand before his family moved to Australia. He played for Australia Under-20s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-635286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635286","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=635286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}