Michael Burgess is the football and rugby league writer for the Herald on Sunday. Faumuina was the enfant terrible of New Zealand rugby league in the 2000s, one of the bad boys of the sport for most of that decade. "I played a few games for a mate's club team then was named in the Auckland Under-18 team. "In the space of 12 months I went from playing junior club footy to an NRL team," said Faumuina. But he could never break free of the demons, which saw him cut by almost every club he played for.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 28, 2016 16:06 UTC