New Zealand v England, 3rd Test
Malakai Fekitoa living the family dream
June 19, 2014
Malakai Fekitoa has made a major impression in 2014 © Getty Images
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It's hard to tell what means most to Malakai Fekitoa this week: making his first Test start for the All Blacks or showing half of his enormous family the sights and sounds of Hamilton.

Fekitoa, 22, is quietly spoken but his demeanour changes when he talks about his 15 brothers and sisters and his mother, Meleane, who left Tonga for the first time in her life last week to cheer for the eighth-eldest of her brood.

Asked what it meant to start for his adopted country in the third Test against England on Saturday, Fekitoa puts rugby to one side. "It's massive because it gets us together as a family."

Seven of his siblings will be in the grandstand, including some who have travelled from the United States. Fekitoa has hosted them all twice for dinner this week, no doubt recounting stories of a childhood far removed from that of most All Blacks.

Fekitoa was born and raised in a small village on the remote island of Ha'apai. There he suffered a serious hip injury when a door fell on him, and any hopes of playing sport seemed dashed. He couldn't walk for a year and was sent away to live with his grandmother to receive the care required. His mother forbade him from playing physical sport, but Fekitoa eventually tried rugby at Liahona High School on Tonga's main island, an eight-hour ferry ride from her watchful gaze.

A holiday trip to visit a sibling in New Zealand five years ago then changed Fekitoa's life forever. The skills he displayed in a game of touch caught the eye of a scout, and a scholarship to Wesley College in south Auckland followed.

Fekitoa was an early standout at Sevens before shining for Auckland in the ITM Cup, but the Blues surprisingly failed to retain him for this year and he travelled south to further his career with the Highlanders in Dunedin. Fekitoa has been a breakout star of the 2014 Super Rugby season, and his rapid ascent continues this week with him anxious to spend as much time as possible with second five-eighth Ma'a Nonu and injured centre Conrad Smith.

"Having Conrad around and Ma'a is massive," said Fekitoa, the second member of his family to play international rugby, after French-based older brother Saia, who represented Tonga twice in 2010.

"They tell me what to do and what to fix in my game."

© AAP

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