Keni Fisilaus Exeter Greg Hopes to Power Through England Honor
In the early 2000s, a small group of Tongan international rugby players based in the UK held regular community gatherings to share incredibly hearty meals, pray and socialize. FE’ao Vunipola, Kuli Faletau and Keni Fisilau all came from the same club at home and over the years their respective wives and children became one big extended family.
To say that the national teams of England and Wales, as well as the British and Irish Lions, have taken some advantage of this plump house of emigrated Tongan muscles would be the most colossal understatement. Together, FE’ao’s sons Mako and Billy Vunipola won 154 caps for England, while Kuli’s young Taulupe Faletau played 104 times for Wales. Now it’s time to meet the Fisilaus in the form of Keni’s 20-year-old son Greg, who plays for Exeter against Bath in the round of eight of the Champions Cup on Saturday and made his debut in England in February.
Given Greg’s relative inexperience, his pace of progress since arriving at Exeter from the Wasps just 17 months ago has been remarkable. “It’s awesome to think he’s only 20 years old,” says Rob Baxter, the Chiefs’ director of rugby. “bodily, it’s just scratching the surface. He does not look so tall, and then gets on the scales and weighs 110 kg.”According to the Chiefs’ strength and conditioning staff, even more Tongan turbo power will be created.
That is, if you talk to Keni, your hardworking and kind eldest son may soon have a serious family competition. Everyone who is walking in the Oxford area this week may have already seen a 10-year-old doing mountain sprints, and the boy’s name is an additional gift. “It’s called ‘MB’, but it’s called Makobilly,” Keni proudly reveals.
“We gave Mako and Billy’s mom the honor of naming our little one, and she named him after his boys.”OK, what are the recent news from the hill? “Yesterday, when I drove my second son to Warwick, I told him to drive 15 races on his own. When I came back, I asked how much he had managed. He said 10.”
If you’re wondering if 47-year-old Keni, once a punchy centre for Plymouth Albion, is a fan of tough love, you’re right. In Greg’s matter, it started before he could walk – “When he started growing, I was just trying to get him to crawl up and down the stairs” – although Keni sadly admits that he sometimes went too far. “When Greg was young, he turned purple every time he ran, but he never stopped. He would cry, but he would continue anyway. Only after did I find out that he had asthma. I thought, “Oh no, I almost killed him.’”
Legend also has it that Keni initially refused to take Plymouth-born Greg to score rugby because he had no contact, although the truth was more nuanced. “We went to church on Sundays, so I didn’t take him to mini-rugby.”However, nature finally took its course, and Greg began to play at devonport’s services, and then at Oxford Harlequins, when his father became a player-coach there. “We are Tongans,” says Keni. “Rugby is in our blood from home. I have two older daughters, but I kept praying for a son. And then it happened!”
Fisilau siblings have always been encouraged to make a name for themselves to a certain extent. The older sister Lisia is in the RAF, and her sister Malieta has a degree in economics and law. A teenage brother, David, is at the Midlands Academy of the RFU, and then there is Makobilly, who recently received a scholarship to a large local preparatory school.
