Having announced his retirement from professional rugby last month, the Sydney-born Jersey Reds centre is returning Down Under via London this week after being granted permission to fly home by the Australian High Commission. His departure – with two Championship games still to play this term – comes in the wake of an 11-game ban for tackling and rucking offences against Ealing on 17 April.
However, the softly-spoken, affable father of three, fondly known as Kuki, is leaving Jersey with his head held firmly aloft – and with few regrets.
‘I would have loved to have run out here in front of a crowd one last time,’ said Ma’afu, who won three international caps for Tonga thanks to his father’s heritage. ‘That would have been the dream. But I play every game like it’s my last, with my heart on my sleeve.
‘I play on the edge and I think if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t be the person or the player I am.
‘I’m living proof that not everything is going to go your way but I can’t let that outweigh all the good memories. We have so many good memories here that outweigh the way it’s finished. If I’d ever thought about finishing up, here would have been the best place to do it and I’m happy to do it on my own terms. I don’t want to go somewhere else and start all over again, I’m happy to call it here.
‘We had plans of staying here or in England, getting a UK passport and seeing where life takes us, but Covid changed everything.
‘Once Covid hit we reassessed and thought about having our family around us, because we are so far away from everyone.’
The 33-year-old arrived at St Peter in November 2016 with hopes of furthering his rugby career while also harbouring an ambition to give his children – Arieta (now 8), Montana (7) and Salesi jnr (4) – a taste of new cultures.
On both fronts, he believes his targets were met.
‘I look at myself and think I’m an overachiever,’ said the former NSW Country Eagles powerhouse, who turned his back on Shute Shield and top-flight NRC rugby in Australia when Reds’ director of rugby Harvey Biljon came calling. ‘I’ve achieved more in my life than I ever thought I would, given the challenges I faced when I was growing up.
‘When I got here the guys ahead of me were an All Black, Regan King, and Fautua Otto, a Samoa international. They were big shoes to fill and I was coming in trying to pick up where they left off. To play as many games as I have since then is a big achievement for me, and to captain the team last year for a few games. I never thought any of that would happen.’
Ma’afu, whose brothers, Salesi and Campese, represented Australia and Fiji respectively, is also overjoyed by his experiences off the field since upping sticks with just a week’s notice midway through the 2016/17 Championship campaign.
‘There wasn’t really much interest to go overseas before Harvey gave me a call,’ he said. ‘I loved playing Shute Shield and I loved the way of playing rugby out there but when Harvey got in touch I thought about how it would be lovely for my kids to experience life somewhere else.
‘I was in pre-season with Randwick and Harvey said “I need a midfielder here”. I spoke to my brothers and they said it was a lovely place and couldn’t speak highly enough of the team, then when I got back to Harvey he said “I need you here asap”. I was like: “I’ve got three kids, what do you mean asap?!”.
‘I spoke to my wife, which wasn’t an easy conversation, asking her to look after three kids, and I got on the plane seven days later. I didn’t know Jersey was an island until a few days before I got on the plane. I just thought it was a club in England. Five years later, I’m still here.
‘My wife and kids came over later and they’ve now experienced living on the other side of the globe. And they love this place so much. I’ve really hit the lotto with that one and I’m truly blessed for the experiences I’ve had here. The fact that my wife and kids will miss Jersey makes me happy. It sounds weird, but that way I know I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve – they’ve enjoyed themselves.’
Ma’afu hopes to keep his hands moving on a part-time basis with boyhood club West Harbour later this year, alongside intentions to explore new avenues.
‘I have my own plans,’ he explained. ‘I want to do an apprenticeship that I started years ago and become an electrician or a plumber – that’ll be the next challenge – but when I called retirement a load of other opportunities also popped up. Some of them are in rugby, like working with young kids and Pacific Islanders. I was amazed by the number of opportunities coming up through old friends.’
Discussing his life in the Channel Islands, and his views on Jersey Reds’ future, the 2019 Siam Cup try-scorer said: ‘It makes me sad to leave. I feel like part of the furniture here.
‘The Siam Cup definitely sticks out for me. I got to see a side of Jersey I’d never seen before – seeing how much it means to everyone. Other big ones were the Russia game [2019/20 pre-season], beating Bristol at Ashton Gate [March 2018] and in my first year here beating London Irish, but the Siam Cup was a very special one.’
He continued: ‘What’s exciting is the club has got guys like Rob Webber and Ed Robinson [assistant coaches] who have fresh minds on rugby. Rob has good knowledge of how the game is still played, after finishing just last year, and they’ve both valuable to have around.
‘I hope things work out in terms of the Championship. They need it. A lot of players come through the Championship and I hope to see everyone here excel.
‘Every year since I’ve got here it has been getting better and I think the club will keep on getting better after I’ve gone.’
