MOANA Pasifika and Tongan winger Tima Fainga’anuku and his brother Crusaders and All Blacks’ Leicester Fainga’anuku made their family proud after debuting for Tonga and New Zealand, respectively, last Saturday.
Even though the Tongan team succumbed to the Flying Fijians, Fainga’anuku was grateful to represent his country for the first time.
“It was a big moment for both of us last week,” said Fainga’anuku.
“Our parents were proud and obviously, the All Blacks played in New Zealand, so I told mum and dad to go to Leicester’s game because I would be alright here since Fiji is like home to me.”
The 25-year-old robust winger said the Fijians were hard to stop and never expected to get into the game early.
“It was a tough game last week against Fiji and I was not expecting to get in there early to replace Folau.
“He was someone I looked up to and it was even tougher to mark up against ‘The Bossman’ (Habosi), he was tough.”
Tonga will face Samoa this weekend at Churchill Park, Lautoka and Fainga’anuku said his team would try and rectify last week’s performance with a better outing on Saturday.
“Going into this week, we will work on the same things,” he said.
“We will just try and lift the energy and intensity.
“I am still young so I will try and bring my best foot forward for the match this week. We know Samoa will be physical and we will try and match them.”
Playing alongside his idols is something he cherishes saying he can not believe his luck seeing them when they marched into camp for the first time.
“I did not know how to react seeing them on the first day.
“Their presence and experience is something the younger players in the team look up to and we have been learning a lot from them.”
