Maddie Feaunati

The Leeds-born daughter of Hollywood’s ‘Jonah Lomu’, Maddie Feaunati follows in mighty Samoan footsteps, but in a debut year when the world took notice, the best is still to come.

Isaac Fe’aunati was always a firm crowd favourite at The Rec. His tightly packed, 17-stone, 6ft 2in frame was designed to bulldoze opponents and, even in an era of mixed fortunes for Bath, the sight of him sitting someone down would inspire roars that resonated across the Roman city – a bit like the hit itself. 

In his years with the club – he joined in 2003 and left in 2008 – there was a mini-me following in his footsteps, almost literally. His first daughter Maddie was born a year before he arrived in Bath, and as soon as she was toddling, she was on the rugby pitch, running, passing and even tackling. “Whenever we were picking dad up from a bus trip away the day after a game,” Maddie recalls, “I remember running around the field throwing and kicking balls, and on game days being annoying in the friends and family box. Often, they would have university students look after us, and our parents would be off doing whatever, so we would cause them lots of trouble.”

Isaac, or rather Zak as he was always called, is familiar to many, either as the formidable number eight for Samoa or for a decade-long career in the English Premiership, which took in London Irish, Rotherham, Leeds [where Maddie was born], and then Bath. He made his name first in New Zealand, with Wellington and Crusaders, and it was this Kiwi connection that led to arguably his greatest role – as Jonah Lomu, in the Clint Eastwood film Invictus. “I remember when I was younger,” begins Maddie on the topic of dad, the Hollywood star, “he played in this charity game, and these kids were shouting ‘Jonah Jonah’.

“It’s pretty cool that my dad played Jonah Lomu,” she continues, “and he gets recognised a lot for that. But it is something we grew up around, so it was so normal, but it was, for him, a massive achievement. It was such a big movie and a really cool story as well.

“I like to watch the film when I’m on the plane, usually, because it’s always on there. I think I enjoy it more and more every time I watch it; I used to watch it when I was younger, but I didn’t really know what I was watching. I love the story and what it’s all about.”

Maddie is now fast-becoming a rugby star in her own right. We meet the 22-year-old flanker at Exeter Chiefs, where she’s a pivotal figure for the current table-toppers of English women’s rugby. She’s also been enough of a star for the Red Rose to be shortlisted for Breakthrough Player of the Year for World Rugby. 

Spending her early years in Bath gave Maddie an early connection with the sport, thinking her dad’s job was as normal as being a postal worker or a doctor. “Growing up, because of my dad and the film, I thought everyone knew what rugby was,” she says. “I came to realise that it’s just his job; just as my friends’ dads had other jobs, rugby is what my dad does. I never really watched him play, so I didn’t really know how good he was, but I never thought ‘Oh, my dad’s a superstar’.

“We moved to Corsham [a small market town in Wiltshire] at one point and lived on a farm, which was a good experience for us as well, because we [Maddie and little sister Zara, four years her junior] had been quite silly girls until then.

“We lived on the farm with the owners, we had a house separate from theirs, and I just remember everyone would always just come round, because it was a place to get out, get away from the city. We used to go feed the pigs, it was a proper farm. One time we had this massive barn party that went down, which everyone in my family still talks about to this day. What happened at the party is a story for other people to tell, because I was kicked out and in bed by nine.”

Although born almost ten thousand miles from Samoa, the Pacific islands play a big role in Maddie’s life. “I know that I’m half Samoan, but I’m still figuring out what that means to me and to my extended family,” she says. Her mum, Cat, was born in New Zealand. “My dad’s side are very into the Samoan culture and I think it’s a huge thing that they get to teach us what everything’s about. I’ll get told I’m saying my last name wrong or whatever, but I think everyone’s on their own journey in trying to understand their culture and who they are, so I’m still big on giving back to my culture and learning about it.

“We would have huge family gatherings, where we would meet so many family members who we did not even know existed, and we would all dance and eat Samoan food. We were also part of a cultural group where we did more dancing and singing. Even though it sounds fun, it was pretty intimidating as well. I think that’s why I’m quite comfortable in uncomfortable environments, because I’m someone that didn’t really know where they fit in culturally, and this is still something that’s a part of me. So, it took me a while to navigate that, and I’m not completely there yet.

“Unfortunately,” she adds, “we had a loss in our family in 2018, but then we were surrounded by the culture and we got to experience the Samoan way of grieving someone and sending someone off. So that was quite a special experience.” 

Maddie’s Samoan education truly began in earnest when the family returned to her maternal homeland, New Zealand, when she was nine.

“For so long England was home and, for ages, I just remember asking ‘when are we going back home?’ all the time,” says Maddie. “It’s funny now because I’ve spent around half of my life in New Zealand and the other half in England, so now I would consider both places to be home. But when we first moved, it was very scary, even though I guess as kids, you just get stuck into it.

“We moved to a very small town, Paraparamu, on the coast near Wellington. It’s a beachy area, so we grew up walking to the beach every day, going to get ice cream from the corner shop, even if it was raining. It allowed us to live very actively as kids.”

After the weekends spent running up and down Paraparamu’s golden sands, on the weekdays Maddie used to get the train into Wellington for school. The contrast between beach-living and inner-city schooling produced a student who was daring and aspirational, but, in her own words, “high maintenance”.  “I use this phrase a lot because it means something else in my family; they call me very high maintenance in the sense that I’m quite driven and determined. Obviously not high maintenance in a bratty or spoiled way. 

“I think I’m very determined. I used to study a lot, I was very keen to be a deputy head and I always wanted the leadership role in whatever I was doing. 

“I’ve learned that things happen in their own time because of my experience at school. I knew I was decent at sport, but I was always that person that missed out. 

“I was quite big into athletics from nine to twelve, I was very into my 400m running. I loved the track, to the point where I would just be there every day running and sprinting, and I had some great coaches around me that just loved being there with me every day. So I think that’s where I got my training habits from.” 

Netball took centre stage first, with rugby arriving quite late in Maddie’s life as she began to play sevens when she was sixteen years old, before playing her first fifteens game when she was eighteen. It wasn’t long before she was invited to play for the Otago Spirit, who play in the Farah Palmer Cup. “I felt so out of my depth,” she admits. “I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ I was so scared, just because I felt quite unfamiliar with the rugby environment and for so long it had all been about netball for me.

“I had been around some high-performance environments [with netball], but it was really strange, because in Otago, the high-performance centres are all in the same spot. So I used to walk left and go to the netball centre and now I was walking right going into the rugby stadium. I think for everyone, but especially myself, it was just surreal that I had really made that switch.”

Having played in the new Super Rugby Aupiki – a four-team competition designed to showcase the best of New Zealand women’s rugby and provide a direct pathway to the Black Ferns – for the Hurricanes Poua and Wellington Pride, Maddie established herself as one of the most exciting youngsters in New Zealand.

But, just as her potential started to be recognised domestically – and after she had begun to work a few shifts answering calls for a bank in her bedroom – she was contacted by Exeter Chiefs head coach Susie Appleby, who was on the lookout for English-qualified players to come and play in the Premiership. Having been impressed by Maddie’s ball-carrying ability and raw strength, Susie immediately extended an invitation to come and play for the Chiefs on a three-month trial basis. “Everything was just so fast and random; I had no idea what I was committing to and I definitely didn’t know what to expect,” Maddie says. “I knew the women’s Premiership [PWR] existed over here, but I didn’t realise how well developed the competition was. In New Zealand, you’re always playing with the same people, same teams, those are just the goals that you’re pushing for, because it’s all you know. 

“So when Susie gave me the message, it felt incredible. Somehow it felt both like something I always wanted to do but also an opportunity that I did not know existed. It was like a genie had given me a wish, like ‘here’s an opportunity for you’. She said, ‘hey Maddie, I was wondering whether you might want to come play some rugby over here, and you’ve got a British passport, so it makes things easy for you’. I had a call with her and dad, we talked logistics and then I came over.

“It was a three-month contract so I knew that I had nothing to lose and I would be stupid to say no, it was such an easy decision. Everyone has been asking me ‘was it hard?’, and for some reason it was never hard making this decision.”

Adjusting was difficult, but her team-mates played a big role in her settling in. 

“The girls at Chiefs helped me a lot,” she says. “So many of them live away from family and they understand what it’s like; we got coffee every day and they had me round for dinner, helping me with whatever I needed. They gave me the confidence to not fear anything.

“I needed that because I would not call myself a confident person, which is probably my biggest downfall. I suffered from a lot of anxiety at school and coming over to a new country, my anxiety was very high.

“I was in this country alone and rugby-wise, I didn’t understand the terminology or logistics and I hadn’t had guidance before on team structures or game-plan strategy. At my level in New Zealand, it was just, ‘get the ball and run as hard as you can’. I actually used that to my advantage coming over here though, I wanted to use my roughness and skill while learning systems to help me become my own player.”

However, a return to England, where she was born, had always been on the cards. “I always knew that I wanted to go back to England,” she says. “I want to play rugby, and learn about playing in a different hemisphere. Playing here suits me a lot better and now I understand it a lot more. Being here is where I’m meant to be, it’s where I’m doing best and having the most fun.”

Maddie made her debut for Chiefs against Leicester Tigers in the Allianz Cup in October 2023 and made her first league start against Ealing Trailfinders the following January. Having impressed as an impact player off the bench, she was then a surprise inclusion in John Mitchell’s squad for the Six Nations that March. She featured in every game as England won their eighteenth Grand Slam, and has been selected ever since, which earned her the nod from World Rugby as one of four nominees for the 2024 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year, with Erin King of Ireland coming out as the winner. 

“Exeter Chiefs posted a pretty cool announcement about the nominations, which was a joint post through the men’s and women’s page, because obviously Manny [Immanuel Feyi-Waboso] was nominated for the Men’s Breakthrough Player of the Year and Tess [Alex Tessier] was nominated for the Women’s Player of the Year too.

“Yeah the women don’t often get recognition on the men’s page,” Maddie says with a wry smile creeping across her face. “So that was quite cool.”

She’s taken everything in her stride, including her international call-up. “I haven’t once felt unwelcome when I’ve been away with England,” she says. “Obviously, I felt a bit nervous, and going into camp now I’m still a little nervous. But I think everyone understands what it’s like to be the new person.

“I really don’t think a lot of the players knew who I was when I was first called up. I hadn’t played that many games, and I was more of an impact player off the bench for Chiefs. So unless you were there playing in those games, it would have been hard to know who I was.

“Obviously I had doubts when I was first called up, but my dad was so important to me during this period. He supported me the whole time, so it helped not to overthink going into something that was my dream for so long.

“I’ve learned a lot from him. Even when I was at home during the summer break before WXV, I was doing some extra skill sessions with him. He never forces anything on me, but he knows my potential, and he’s definitely a great mentor to have.”

Qualified to play for England, New Zealand and for Samoa, the question about which international team to represent has only ever had one answer.  “To me, England is my home,” Maddie says. “This is where I was born, this is where I want to give back to and this is who I want to play rugby for. It’s something in my head that I’ve always seen as the ultimate. You obviously hear things like, ‘oh, she’s just playing because she can’. ‘She’s got the passport, but she’s got a New Zealand accent’. I get quite offended by it, because I genuinely wanted to play for England from the start and it was never a hard decision to make. You can’t read into things and what other people think about you, I guess I’ve learned that along the way.”

In fact, not only is she English-born, but her dad also paved the way for her to qualify. “You see all these other players go and become residents of a rugby-playing country, they fall in love with the country, and they want to give back by playing international rugby. But to me, my dad became that resident in England, and I’m a product of Premiership rugby and my closest friends in Bath were all daughters and sons of rugby players.”

Back to the rugby itself, and Maddie feels that Exeter are starting to reach the heights that could lead to a title that has escaped their grasp in recent times, as they have reached the final in two of the past three seasons. As we write, Exeter Chiefs sit top of the Premiership table with seven wins from seven games, including victories against Harlequins and Gloucester-Hartpury, who are second and third respectively. “I know we have had some good seasons in the past, but I think everyone’s just really determined to go the extra mile and hopefully take it the whole way,” she says. “I feel like we’ve got a deeper connection now and we’ve all spent more time together. A few new people came in last year, a few people left. But it’s pretty much the same squad, so it has felt much easier in transition and as a team we’re flowing really well. 

“There has not even been much talk of previous seasons, not at all. This is a new group, a new team with a new goal.”

The different vibes around the Chiefs this season are perhaps best encapsulated by the fact that a new season has even brought another Feaunati to south Devon. Zara Feaunati is just eighteen, but plays as a strong lock using the skills she learned at New Zealand’s U20 Women’s Rugby Development Camp last year. After she expressed interest in joining her sister at Chiefs, Susie Appleby, keen to unearth another gem from the Feuanati family, didn’t hesitate in inviting her over to Exeter.

Seeing both sisters in the white of England isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, but at this stage Maddie is focused first on Exeter and then the 2025 Rugby World Cup. “Every rugby player’s goal right now is to get on those World Cup team sheets so I’m just trying to develop my mental and physical game,” she says. “I feel like it’s going to be the biggest time for women’s rugby ever and a home World Cup is very exciting. But either way I’m happy to be supporting whoever’s on that team sheet, I will back every girl, one to 35, all the way. 

“But obviously,” she adds, “it’s something that I’m aiming for and know that I need to work towards. I’d love to be there.”

Do that, and help England secure the World Cup on home soil, and Maddie may even be able to eclipse her movie-star dad. Although, given he’s Hollywood’s version of rugby’s greatest-ever star, that’s going to take some doing.  

Story by Scott Duke-Giles

Pictures by  Danté Kim

This extract was taken from issue 28 of Rugby.
To order the print journal, click here.