Sowakula’s special journey back home

matches]. I’ve worked extremely hard over the last 12 months to improve my batting and my power game for T20 cricket and felt I had a good Super Smash [domestic] series.

‘‘The most recent T20 game for the White Ferns [against India in Queenstown in February] I was player of the match. To be sat there and told, it’s hard to take. You respect what they’re doing and they’ve decided a change is needed and a different direction is going to be taken.’’

Tahuhu had bounced back from setbacks throughout her career and believed she still had a lot to contribute to the White Ferns. Her hunger and desire to play cricket at the elite level remained strong.

She was looking at possible T20 franchise opportunities overseas and would be concentrating on off-season training with Canterbury.

‘‘I’ve come back before from numerous setbacks and this is just another one I’ll be looking to tackle and hopefully get back out there and play again for my country.’’

Tahuhu was saddened by the way Satterthwaite, a New Zealand women’s cricket great, had been treated and believed it could have been handled far better.

After 15 years of international cricket, it was upsetting Satterthwaite had simply been told she wouldn’t be receiving a national contract and wasn’t in the White Ferns’ future plans.

‘‘I think that’s probably one of the things for her and for us as a family that has been hard to come to terms with is that she wasn’t even given the respect of a conversation of asking what her plans are for the next six-to12 to-18 months ...

‘‘You’d expect a bit of a conversation to have occurred, a two-way street, instead of being sat down and informed.’’

From just three-weeks-old, Pita Gus Sowakula was cradled in the arms of his aunty and uncle, who brought him up while his mother attended school in Lautoka.

Twenty-seven years later, that little baby boy returns to his hometown in Fiji quite the grown man – all 1.95 metres and 110kg of him – with his own wee bundle of joy in tow, in the midst of a thriving rugby career which has him on the verge of an All Blacks call-up.

Fresh off celebrating his 50th match for the Chiefs last weekend, today’s clash against the Fijian Drua is something else in the significance stakes for the former resort chef who now, rather than in the kitchen, goes about concocting his salivating offerings on the footy field.

A former national basketball rep, Sowakula also played rugby league and sevens before making the shift to New Zealand in 2016 when his agent brokered a deal to get the former winger – yes, winger – a spot in the Taranaki rugby academy.

Called into the Chiefs as injury cover in 2018, the powerful, athletic No 8 has taken his game to new levels, so much so he has had contact from the All Blacks ahead of July’s test series against Ireland.

‘‘A few messages from the coaches – just to play my game and finish off the season strong and hopefully be in that environment soon,’’ Sowakula told this week.

Before that, though, comes a match against a Drua side which has been thrashed in its two outings on Kiwi soil in the past three weeks, but which Sowakula knows will present as a dangerous, nothing-to-lose prospect in their first-ever outing in Lautoka, against a Chiefs side who need a win to guarantee a home quarterfinal next weekend.

Richie Mo’unga’s fresh one-year deal with NZ Rugby has bolstered the All Blacks’ playmaker options for next year’s World Cup in France.

First five-eighth Mo’unga, 28, yesterday confirmed he will remain in New Zealand for another season. He has also recommitted to the Crusaders and Canterbury.

While the decision wasn’t unexpected and there had been no indication Mo’unga was considering offshore offers, All

‘‘It’s their last game, but because we’re playing at their home they won’t back down, they’ll try and impress the supporters, so they’ll play their best this week.’’

Knowing a thing or two about playing their best is indeed Sowakula, who’s put this season’s fine form down to being a new dad.

Making the trip back to his home town even more special, then, is having his partner and seven-month old Lavenia-Rangi by his side for a surprise first meeting of his daughter for his family back home.

Sowakula’s mother and grandmother live in Lautoka, along with his five younger brothers and two younger sisters (half-siblings included), who are keen school and club rugby players in their own right and were to be treated to new pairs of rugby boots which their older brother had ensured he packed in his luggage for Thursday’s flight.

Sowakula’s uncle and aunty, who he counts as his ‘‘parents’’ – now live in Sigatoka but will also form part of the crew cheering him on at Churchill Park – a ground he has played at during his school and club days, last setting foot on it in 2012.

‘‘I’m really looking forward to seeing the family,’’ said Sowakula,

Blacks and Crusaders coaches Ian Foster and Scott Robertson would have welcomed confirmation that the influential playmaker was staying in New Zealand.

Foster now has two experienced No 10s locked in for the World Cup, with Beauden Barrett committed to NZ Rugby through to the end of 2023.

Mo’unga has played 32 tests since his debut as a substitute against France in 2017.

who was hoping for a heap of tickets from his team-mates to help out both he and fellow Fijian Emoni Narawa, and who has again sorted a bus for the village to hop aboard to the ground.

Indeed, this is Sowakula’s third time in Fiji with the Chiefs. In his maiden campaign he was a nonplaying member of the side which beat the Highlanders in Suva, then he was part of the all-action comeback win over the Crusaders in the capital the following year.

The family were at those games, too, but this time, back where he was born and spent much of his childhood, is more momentous.

‘‘It’s pretty cool to go back there,’’ Sowakula said, of a fixture which was only late in the making, having originally been scheduled for Australia’s Gold Coast.

‘‘It was pretty funny, we were still in Aussie [last month], we were just in the hotel, and my family messaged me from back home telling me that we were actually playing in Fiji.

‘‘They were the ones that actually broke the news to us.

‘‘So I was shocked.’’

Having moved to Sigatoka for primary school, Sowakula returned, on his own, to the country’s second

At a glance

What: Super Rugby Pacific

Who: Fijian Drua v Chiefs

Where, when: Churchill Park, Lautoka; 3pm today

Fijian Drua: Kitione Taliga, Ilaisa Droasese, Apisalome Vota, Kalaveti Ravouvou, Vinaya Habosi, Teti Tela, Frank Lomani, Nemani Nagusa (c), Rusiate Nasove, Joseva Tamani, Viliame Rarasea, Isoa Nasilasila, Kaliopasi Uluilakepa, Zuriel Togiatama, Haereiti Hetet. Reserves: Tevita Ikanivere, Timoci Sauvoli, Manasa Saulo, Chris Minimbi, Mesulame Dolokoto, Peni Matawalu, Caleb Muntz, Onisi Ratave.

Kaleb Trask, Emoni Narawa, Rameka Poihipi, Quinn Tupaea, Alex Nankivell, Bryn Gatland, Brad Weber (c), Pita Gus Sowakula, Luke Jacobson, Samipeni Finau, Tupou Vaa’i, Brodie Retallick, Angus Ta’avao, Samisoni Taukei’aho, Aidan Ross. Reserves: Bradley Slater, Ollie Norris, Atu Moli, Naitoa Ah Kuoi, Kaylum Boshier, Cortez Ratima, Josh Ioane, Jonah Lowe.

largest city to attend Central College Lautoka, where he stayed with his mum’s older sister.

Due to basketball opportunities, he transferred to Suva Grammar for his final term of school, then earned himself a job as a chef at Hideaway Resort near Sigatoka.

‘‘I’ve started to lose the cooking skills now,’’ Sowakula admitted.

But while his kitchen exploits may not be what they were, his rugby feats have instead taken over, after plunging well outside his comfort zone half a dozen years ago in making the move overseas, to now all of a sudden bringing up a half century with the Chiefs.

‘‘It was a bit of a struggle when I first came,’’ he said.

‘‘I never imagined that I would come this far.

‘‘But I’m just grateful for the opportunity.’’