New England Free Jacks Adds Poasa Waqanibau
By Grant FeeleyNew England Free Jacks added Poasa Waqanibau for the 2020 Major League Rugby season.The 25-year-old wing/center is 6’2″, and 229 lbs.
Poasa is from Vunisinu, Dreket, Rewa, but grew up in Kuku in Bau Tailevu, Fiji. He is the second oldest of four siblings and attended Ratu Kadavulevu School where he played rugby.
He played for the Fiji Under 20s in 2014 at the Junior World Championship, however over a year prior to the competition, his father Jone Waqanibau died. His mother, Akanisi Voavoa, sold pudding so he could obtain rugby boots for the competition.
He then moved to New Zealand and became the top try scorer for Border RFC in the Wanganui Premier Club competition. He also played for Canterbury in the NPC/Mitre10 competition and in the Super Rugby season for the Crusader Knights, the Crusaders development team. Poasa played in the Brisbane 10s for the Crusaders in 2017.
In 2015 he was selected for the Telecom Fijian Warriors in the World Rugby Pacific Challenge and in 2018 he represented the Fiji Drua in the NRC.