Coco Talanoa — Sports / Page 43

Brother's Dane Ingham (17) and Jai Ingham (23) have both been named in the All Whites squad for the OFC Stage Three Qualifiers against Fiji - the next step of FIFA World Cup qualifying. 

Australian born Dane, the youngest of the brothers was selected to join the 23-man squad along side his brother Jai, the first brothers to be named in a New Zealand squad since Neil and Kenny Harlock in 1997. 

"It was a pretty special moment...I was sitting at home and I got a call from my agent saying that New Zealand were interested and they were going to call me up and I got on the phone straight away to my brother and my mum and we just talked and mum was really happy to have both of us called into the squad." - Dane Ingham. 

The pair qualify to play for New Zealand through their mother Virginia, who was born in Dunedin before moving to Australia when she was 16.…more

Take a look back at Mark 'The Super Samoan' Hunt's Top 5 knockouts in the UFC ...

Destanee Aiava is only 16 years old and shaping up to be the first Samoan Tennis Super star! Here are a few things that she’s aced already…

• February 2017 as in last week… Destanee won her first ITF women's title of her career, snatching the $25,000 prize in Perth by defeating Viktoria Kuzmova in the final, 6–1 6–1. Aiava stole the show! She served well, facing only one break point, and she broke her rival 5 times from 14 chances, more than enough for a nice and easy triumph and another milestone in her already incredible career.…more

Late last year Tasha Aiono entered the $50,000 1st Phorm Athlete search.

The 27 year old shares her story in this video here to help inspire others on their own fitness & sports journeys.

She attended BYU Hawaii and played 4 years of College Soccer as well as for the Women's Real Salt Lake Team and also played overseas in New Zealand for the Samoan Women's National Team in the South Pacific Games.  

Last year she started playing Womens football for the first time for the Utah Falconz.

Ardie & Julian Savea took off their rugby boots and picked up tennis rackets for a good cause at the ASB Classic yesterday.

They took on the Williams sisters - Venus and Serena - in a charity match which raised over $65k for the city of Kaikoura which had been badly damaged in an earthquake towards the end of last year.  

The boys also had help from another tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and at one point even Venus jumped sides against Serena.

Great day out and a chance to see tennis super stars in action! 

Check out some more of the highlights below ...

Suggested Links:

Julian & Ardie Savea - My World 

The 2016 Kalofae/Fail moments of the year 

This time last week the NRL Pacific Leadership Camp was in full swing with players identified by their clubs as being leaders or potential leaders in attendance.

Speakers included Dr Colin Tukuitonga, Frank Puletua, Nigel Vagana, Quentin Pongia with Tagata Pasifikas John Pulu on MC duties.

One of the key speakers at the camp was Digital Strategist Mahei Foliaki who spoke to the players about the platform they have as NRL players to be able to use their influence to help their community, their people and their family but making sure they were equipped with the right information and knowledge to be able to do this through Social Media.  

He encouraged them to educate themselves,  keep learning and to firstly have a strategy/plan and secondly the tactics to achieve their objectives.

Mahei stressed the importance of personal responsibility and how they're using these social media tools because it affects their brand.  He brought it closer to home by saying "Your surname!  Your surnames your brand ....…more

He has just made history by becoming the first Samoan to win the Heavyweight Championship of the world. We Catch up with Joseph Parker, straight after his hard fought win and he tells us all about taking the belt back home... to Samoa.

Before Joseph Parker, some other very powerful Samoans stepped in to the ring.

Jimmy Peau & David Tua to name a couple. Here's a little look at the carnage they caused, as they paved the way for Joseph Parker.

The Hawai'i State Championship final in November saw the Kahuku Red Raiders and the Saint Louis Crusaders meet again.

Saint Louis went on to win 30 - 14 to claim the Open State Football Title but what was interesting about this game besides the game was that the Kahuku Red Raiders were not allowed to perform the haka.

In 2010 a haka was composed for Kahuku's football team which became a tradition for the boys to perform at the beginning of their games (similar to the hakas performed in New Zealand and the South Pacific islands prior to rugby and rugby league games).

Last year the Kahuku Raiders were told that if they did the haka it would be considered "Unsportsmanlike" and they'd be given a 15 yard penalty.  They did it anyway and took the penalty.

THIS year, the team were told that any player performing the haka would be banned so the community got together - friends, family and fans - to help the team and THEY performed the haka in the stands for the boys.…more