He’s New Zealand-born, Māori-Samoan and proudly Australian.
But when Australian Wallabies player Brandon Paenga-Amosa faced the mighty power of the All Blacks in full haka for the very first time, it was an emotional experience.
“It was unreal. Like, it was only 23 players during the Haka but it felt like there were bloody millions. You know you can really feel the wairua and aura around it, you know? I got really emotional because if you asked any of my teammates, I was that one guy at school or group that would always be down to do a haka. And facing it, I just wanted to bust out into it.”
Despite coming from whānau – Paenga and Tapene – with a strong kapa haka pedigree, Paenga-Amosa resisted. “’Cause, you know… Australian”.
