Sharks centre KL Iro will have the honour of leading the Cook Islands team onto the field for their Pacific Championships match after being named captain for their clash with Fiji.
Iro will skipper the Cook Islands for the first time in the match to be played on Saturday at Santos National Football Stadium, Port Moresby .
He will be in charge of a team with a sprinkling of NRL talent, with former Sharks junior and Newtown Jet Rhys Dakin also a member of the Cook Islands Aitu squad.
Coming up against Iro and his Cook Islands team with be a Fijian outfit featuring talented Tigers fullback Jahream Bula, former Panthers premiership winning winger and now West Tiger Sunia Turuva, along with Storm front rower Tui Kamikameca, who will captain the Bati side.
In the earlier women’s game in Port Moresby, kicking off at 2pm, Sharks sisters Chantay at half back and Anne-Maria Kiria-Ratu in the back row, will team up for the Cook Islands in a match against the PNG Orchids.
On Sunday, in the second game of the men’s Pacific Championships, scheduled for a 4.05pm (Sydney time) kickoff at Go Media Stadium, two Sharks in Ronaldo Mulitalo and Briton Nikora will represent New Zealand and tackle a formidable Samoan outfit.
Payne Haas, Brian To’o and Jarome Luai headline the Samoan team list, while James Fisher-Harris will captain the Kiwis.
In the women’s match to be played in Auckland, 2025 Sharks NRLW teammates Brooke Anderson and Annessa Biddle will play for the Kiwi Silver Ferns against the Fetu Samoan women, with that game set to get under way at 1.35pm on Sunday.
