The chat that helped spark a rise to national honours
Kiseki Fifita will on Thursday start on the left-wing for the New Zealand Schools rugby team against Australia Under-18 in Canberra. It's capped off a big 2023 for the Southlander.
Kiseki Fifita has fuelled some pride amongst many Southlanders. Liam Howley falls into that category.
Today (Thursday) Fifita will start on the left-wing for the New Zealand Schools rugby team against Australia Under-18 in Canberra.
Howley has watched the Southland teenager’s impressive 2023 journey closely. He speaks glowing of Fifita’s sporting talent, but more importantly his growth as a person.
Many will know Howley as a Southland Stags halfback. Although it’s during his day job with Active Southland that he has formed a bond with Fifita.
Howley runs Active Southland’s Rangatahi Leadership Group.
The programme was established last year for Māori and Pasifika sportspeople aged 14 to 18.
It offers things like strength and conditioning coaching, mental skills support, and nutrition advice amongst other tools.
Fifita has emerged as one of the programme’s success stories this year.
The Southland Boys’ high School pupil had been part of Rugby Southland’s academy programme in 2022 but his attendance and interest fell away.
After talking with Rugby Southland’s academy manager Scott Eade, Howley decided to give Fifita a crack in the Rangatahi Leadership Group.
“Essentially, we offer what [Rugby Southland] offers and luckily, I come from a rugby background as well so I can give some advice here or there on his tactical and technical stuff.
“He was a wee bit MIA at the start of the year, I couldn’t seem to track him down. I went to Boys’ High and chased him down because I knew how good he could be.
“Me and [SBHS coach] Peter Skelt managed to sit him down and talked about the opportunity we could give and how he could possibly make rugby a career if he wanted to.
“We had a really good chat that day, and Skelty obviously has a very good way with his words. It was pretty cool to see the reaction we got.
“From that moment on he’s been amazing, he doesn’t miss sessions, he’s there and works hard. We’ve seen a massive change in him.”
“He is a leader without knowing it. He’s not a kid that says a lot, but just his presence around the other kids is pretty cool because our group ranges from 14 to 18-year-olds.”
Howley himself emerged through the Rugby Southland academy system as a youngster, and he loved that experience.
However, through that time Howley did see a lot of kids drop out on the back of commitment issues and other matters.
Howley says the RangatahiLeadership Group is co-designed to fit the various needs of those Māori and Pasifika rangatahi who are involved.
Some are required to babysit siblings at night, or hold down jobs, and the Rangatahi Leadership Group works around all of that, Howley says.
Fifita probably fell into that category last year where a traditional academy programme didn’t fit well for him.
“There were a lot of different things that played into that for him, he’s very religious. He is a Mormon and has a lot of time where he has bible school and can’t make certain things.
“So, it’s being able to work around him and that ended up being the best way for him, what can we make work for him?
“He’s still getting the opportunity to gym and train, and learn about mental skills and nutrition, but also understanding his faith is a very big part of his life.”
The Rangatahi Leadership Group started last year with eight members. At the start of this year, they received 75 applicants for 15 spots in the group.
“We’ve got 15 and that’s a mix of Māori, Pasifika, and all different sports as well,” Howley says.
“That’s been the cool thing for me, I’ve been around rugby my whole life, but I’ve got basketballers, league players, netballers all with the same common goal.
“I’ve had my go at trying to be a netball coach, I’ve had Kendall Corkery in with me helping.”
The programme has been able to grow on the back of support from key funders the Te Rourou, One Aotearoa Foundation and ILT Foundation.
As part of the programme, a fund is available which helps with things such as boots or playing fees etc.
Howley says it’s about ensuring there aren’t barriers in place for those in the programme.
Howley will be one of many interested viewers cheering on Fifita as he lines up for the New Zealand Schools team in Canberra.
A week or so ago Fifita’s trip to Australia was in jeopardy.
Soon after Fifita’s national selection, there was concern the Australian trip might cruelly be stripped from him.
It came to light that he needed a visa to travel to Australia and there was advice it would be a 40-day process to sort out and would also come at a significant cost.
“You would never want to see a kid miss out on an opportunity he had worked so hard for,” Howley said.
They then found out that it could be sorted sooner than that 40-day time frame and Fifita’s mother Fuai’api - with support from Howley - went about trying to get the visa situation resolved.
“Api is an amazing woman putting in countless hours figuring out how it worked… Me and Api sat down and nutted out a visa application.”
On Friday, while in camp with the New Zealand Schools in Hamilton, news came through that his visa application had been accepted and he could in fact travel to Australia.
And that’s now where he is, ready to represent New Zealand against Australia.
The New Zealand Schools v Australia U18 game will kick-off at 5.05pm (NZT) and will be screened live on Sky Sport.
Two further Southlanders will line up representative fixtures on Thursday. Hoani Nikora-Wilson - who is also part of the Rangatahi Leadership Group - has been named to start at hooker for the Māori Under-18 team against the New Zealand Barbarians U18 team.
The Barbarians team includes fellow Southland Boys’ High School front rower JJ Fisher. Fisher will start at loosehead prop.