300
Yesterday’s match between the Warriors and Wests Tigers marked Ruben Wiki’s 300th game in the NRL and I just wanna give props to one of league’s greatest ever players and to quote Tofiga on Off Work, “a role models in the gommunity”. The game yesterday was a fitting way to mark the occasion because the venue, Leichardt Oval, was where Wiki made his debut for Canberra (with their U-23s) and the coach of Wests, Tim Sheens, was Wiki’s coach at the Raiders when he first started. Since his early days with the Green Machine, Wiki has gone on to achieve a lot. He has the record for the world’s most capped test player (55), is the most capped NZer in the NRL (300*), is only the 10th player ever to play 300 NRL games and 1st Kiwi, was part of the 24-0 tri-series hiding of Australia, won a premiership with the Raiders in ‘94, has captained his country and club, was named in the all-time Kiwi team, and was made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit for his services to rugby league. As well as his achievements on the field, Wiki has been a role model off it, renowned as an all-round good guy and inspiration to young Polynesian players in the NRL, and has been involved in anti-violence and healthy eating campaigns to name just a few. Personally I’ve always looked up to Ruben Wiki, and along with Tana Umaga, he’s made me proud to be Samoan, even if I am only 1/4. So yeah, shot Ruben, congratulations on the feat and I hope your teammates can get you into the playoffs in your final NRL season because you deserve better than a 12th place finish!