WHEN WORLD RUGBY announced that it was changing its eligibility laws back in November 2021, Pita Ahki’s phone started to blow up. The notifications pinged and popped and swooshed from all corners of the globe.
A native of Auckland, Ahki had played for the New Zealand 7s between 2013 and 2016 before he took his career to Europe, first for a brief stint with Connacht and since 2018, as an important figure in the midfield for Toulouse.
So Ahki was tied to New Zealand until World Rugby made the big change. Suddenly, the door to Test rugby was back open. The messages Ahki was inundated with were coming from “both sides of the party,” Tonga and Samoa.
Ahki’s mother is Tongan and his father is Samoan, so he could have played for either. As a high-performing starter for one of the best clubs in the world, Ahki would surely have been instantly attractive to both of the Pacific Island nations.
Still, the 30-year-old wasn’t sure if he would get a call.
“To be honest, I didn’t think I would,” said Ahki today at Tonga’s World Cup camp.
“I was comfortable where I was, playing with Toulouse, and I was happy with my family. There’s a lot of family time where I am at the moment, and playing some good footy, but when the call came I just had a little think about it with my family, and thought it was time to try and play international rugby.”
Having made his debut for the Tongans during their warm-up games over the summer, Ahki now finds himself preparing to face Ireland in their Pool B clash in Nantes this weekend.
There might be some familiar faces from his time in Connacht if Finlay Bealham and Bundee Aki are involved.
Ahki signed for the westerners on a short-term deal in the 2017/18 season, playing for the province seven times. He was keen to stay on but Connacht went a different route and Ahki ended up with Toulouse.
“I was playing for Waikato in Hamilton and obviously had no contract with the NZRU, so Connacht was looking for a medical joker at the time and Kieran Keane was the coach, he hit up my agent,” said Ahki of how he ended up in Ireland.
“I had nothing on the table back home so I came to Connacht. Galway was a nice place, I don’t know about the weather though!
“We loved our time, we wanted to stay longer because I was sick of all the moving from club to club, but obviously things didn’t work out there and I ended up in Toulouse.”
Not a bad landing spot. Ahki has been excellent for the Top 14 club since and now he’s excited to be playing Test rugby. He’s familiar with many of the Irish players from Champions Cup battles against the provinces, while other Tongan internationals like Charles Piutau and Malakai Fekitoa know Irish rugby well too.
“We’ve talked about it a lot and we have another player, Malakai Fekitoa, who played in Munster and he’s experienced,” said Ahki.
“Some world-class players in the Irish team but we don’t know what team they’ll put out. Whatever team they put out, we know it’ll be world-class. There’s been a lot of chat around what they can and can’t do, but they’re number one for a reason.”
As for the Tongans, there is excitement about seeing them get their World Cup campaign underway after having a watching brief on the opening weekend. Toutai Kefu’s men will now play four weekends in a row against Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, and Romania.
Ahki is just one of the swathe of high-profile players who have joined the Tongan ranks thanks to the eligibility change and while that creates a buzz around them, he pointed out that they’ve got to live up to the billing.
“I know we have a lot of players, I’ve heard all of the stories,” said Ahki. “There’s a lot of hype around our team, saying we’re a good team on paper, but that’s all it is.
“We’ve just got to try put all the pieces of the puzzle together and pull out a big performance and that’s what we as a team are trying to do. This Saturday, we’ll try put out a performance that’ll make our families happy, our country, our little nation of Tonga.”
