HUMANS OF THE ISLANDS - WILL HAFU

Will Hafu

Owns/Runs Hafu's House & Co Manager/Coach of the Sports Academy Tonga

Kingdom of Tonga

I’m Kiwi born and bred out in West Auckland and both my parents are from Tonga. In the last two years I came back (to Tonga) for the 7’s, originally to help coach, but when I got here I played for a little bit too.

I was coaching by myself at first, helping the local teams, then was approached by a New Zealand company (CSM) to start up the Tongan side of the academy, helping kids get scholarships into NZ teams. We work throughout the schools and take the elite kids and help with coaching etc.

We go and video the rugby games, pick the guys that we want and do highlights. We train them separately from the other kids and from there we try to get contracts and pair them up to other schools in New Zealand. It gives them a chance to better their education and to do rugby. This year we’ve sent 22 kids out throughout the whole of New Zealand, North to South.

Will with the Tailulu High School 1st XV rugby boys

Rugby Career

I’ve been everywhere really with rugby and sevens tournaments around the world.

I went to school at Kelson out West then got a scholarship to St Pauls in Hamilton. From there I learned rugby from a young age and learned about the franchise teams. I learnt that you could travel to these outlandish places with rugby. So I moved around in different teams and flew to different places. And it’s been like that for the last 15 odd years, and now I’m here in Tonga.

Hafu's House

I’d been to Tonga maybe twice before, when I was nine and twenty. The rugby was what brought me over. Coming back to Tonga I was fortunate enough that my parents had a property here that was vacant. It was good while I was here for rugby, and then eventually while I was thinking about retiring, I opened up a backpackers.

Hafu’s House is my backpackers; there are a few here. Mine is a small place on the main road, but still a couple hundred people have been through in the last year or two. It’s been a really good and fun experience. With not travelling this past year like I had been doing so consistently, having people from around the word come here almost feels like you’re traveling still.

Struggles and Challenges

I’ve been pretty fortunate to not have too many challenges being here. My Tongan has improved a lot, and it’s different for my parents having me living here now and them living in New Zealand. But its just a short flight and you do feel closer with the same time zone.

Future Plans

I want to do more with development in rugby here. We’re slowly working with the sevens so we have the whole of August to run the secondary schools sevens competitions. From the four tournaments we’ll choose some boys to make a team to take to New Zealand and play.

Development and women’s rugby are my big goals. There’s talent there and I think the stigma with women playing ruby is still here, so you have to try and break those barriers.

What do you think needs to happen for Pacific Rugby to develop?

I think all of the clubs need to work together, the union and the development of rugby. All the young kids are learning everything so much later, when they’re getting to 15/16 is the time when they’re actually playing rugby with coaches. We need to work together to make sure everyone is moving in the right direction. If we make sure we’re transparent with everything we do, we’ll move forward with development and hopefully start with the younger kids.

Will with staff & student at St Pauls Collegiate where Will was lucky enough to get a scholarship from Kelston Boys High in 1999

Do you think the pacific should be let into the super rugby comp?

100%. I think it would have to be based in NZ or Australia, but definitely. The bigger unions will be afraid of it. If we got good coaches and systems behind it, then it could be a force to be reckoned with.