Leicester Faingaʻanuku - On and Off the Field

“Strangers are only friends you haven’t met yet”

A Crusaders player spends a morning with a room of 15-year-olds — and reflects on why connection, not silverware, is what really lasts.

Leicester Faingaʻanuku didn’t get up early and wrangle his broken leg to talk to the visiting Wollongbar Astonville Club about trophies. He came to talk to a room full of 15-year-olds kids about rugby. Over one of our tour celebrity breakfasts he shared his upbringing and the pathway into professional rugby: a journey, he says, built on “a lot of decisions, a lot of sacrifices and a lot of trust.” The questions were sharp and a few of the group were fully engaged asking multiple questions. But the message underneath his answers wasn’t about winning at all.

“Money and fame can never give what I’ve given this morning.”

“A lot of people outside the circle think it’s all about the wins, the glory, the fame,” he says. “Deep down it’s more than that.” Sitting in front of those students reminded him of himself at fifteen, and of how much it would have meant to him to hear from a player back then. Sharing his experience, he says, is “truly special… it’s why you play the game.”

Relationships over status

The value he keeps coming back to is connection and that started long before any professional contract. At school, Leicester captained the First XV, a role he likens to being the quarterback at an American high school. He had “the top-dog status.” But he refused to let it close him off. You were just as likely to find him in the library watching the chess players, or out on the court with mates from every background playing a game of football.

“I always had this mindset,” he says. “Strangers are only friends you haven’t met.”

He also saw further ahead than most teenagers do. The classmate who was good with numbers, the mate who loved hammering nails for the fun of it — he understood the value of them, even then. He knew that everyone carries a strength, and that some just take longer to be found. “Everyone’s good in their own way,” he says. Leicester had friends that had different backgrounds and different interests, but he was able to create a bond with them. One of those school friends, sharp with figures, now works as a financial adviser and helps Leicester with his business today.

A lesson worth passing on

As an adult, he’s watched those same instincts pay off. At business functions and after games, other people call it “networking.” He prefers a simpler approach. “I think relationships are the key,” he says. “Creating connections has been embedded into my lifestyle and character.” And the relationships that began as classmates can become “friends for life.”

For the students, coaches and teachers in the room, the takeaway is hard to forget: talent may open the door, but it’s how you treat people - the nerd in the library, the quiet kid you’ve never spoken to - that decides what you build once you walk through it. The teammate you barely know today could become the friend, the colleague, or the helping hand you rely on for the rest of your life.

Adapted from an interview conducted during Leicester’s breakfast visit to Wollongbar Rugby Club while they were in Christchurch

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