Has Hurricanes hero and Super Rugby Pacific star Fehi Fineanganofo let All Blacks shot slip?

Sunday, 29 March 2026

Fehi Fineanganofo goes in for one of his three tries in the Hurricanes’ victory over the Reds in Wellington on Saturday.

Even before new All Blacks coach Dave Rennie had insisted there was a ‘clean slate’ selection policy for the national side this year, Fehi Fineanganofo’s decision to head offshore was quite the eyebrow-raiser.

The blockbusting winger is the form player of Super Rugby Pacific nearing the halfway point of the season, on the back of a second-straight hat-trick for the red-hot Hurricanes in Saturday’s demolition of the Reds in Wellington.

Yet, when Rennie starts pencilling in his names for July’s three home Nations Championship tests, and mulls his options for the tour of South Africa that follows soon after, you figure there is next to no chance Fineanganofo will be in the mix.

Technically, the 23-year-old is of course still eligible this year. But having announced in January, four days after Scott Robertson’s axing as All Blacks coach, a two-year deal with the English Premiership’s Newcastle Red Bulls, it would then, under current New Zealand Rugby regulations, not be till mid-2028 at the earliest that he could be back in black, and Rennie will surely instead commit to players he knows he will be able to build around for next year’s World Cup.

Fineanganofo is not admitting it publicly, of course, hardly offering many words on the subject at all, in fact, but there will surely be a fair amount of internal questioning going on, if not kicking himself, that he’s gone so early on a move abroad.

“That’s obviously the landscape of rugby at the moment, boys feeling like they need to go overseas and take opportunities,” Hurricanes co-captain Du’Plessis Kirifi noted after the weekend’s win, himself a player who had resisted the urge to do similar in recent years then reap All Blacks selection rewards last year.

With another hat-trick at the weekend, Fehi Fineanganofo sits equal-top at the head of Super Rugby Pacific’s try-scoring chart.

“He’s going to be missed, that’s for sure. Everyone sees the on-field stuff, obviously, scoring tries, his attacking prowess. But he’s a smart, smart footballer, he learns fast and applies things really well throughout the week. So it’s no surprise he makes these plays, because he’s done the work. He’s an awesome young man.”

Yes, Fineanganofo will be the same age as Leicester Fainga’anuku when he left for his stint in France, though the latter had already risen to test level and played at a World Cup.

Could Fineanganofo have just given it a little time? Having been a standout at 1st XV level for Auckland Grammar and duly made the New Zealand Schools team, he had only 12 Super appearances for the Hurricanes (all last year) before deciding to head off.

“I don’t think it’s a shame in the slightest,” Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw said when asked about Fineanganofo’s decision potentially being tinged with All Blacks regrets.

“If he stays and he’s not an All Black, everyone says maybe he could have taken an opportunity overseas.”

Granted, the Bay of Plenty NPC rep had already worn a black jersey on the sevens stage, including a hard-to-top Olympic Games experience (Paris, 2024), which all came after a serious knee injury from club rugby in 2021 which saw Fineanganofo visit four different physios to eventually receive the right diagnosis and then be unable to run for two years.

Fehi Fineanganofo has worn the black jersey on the sevens stage, including at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

It perhaps helps to explain his thinking around opting to take up this overseas opportunity, knowing first-hand how quickly a career in his field could be taken away at short notice, and with a strong desire to provide for his family.

Added to that is that Fineanganofo probably never really grew up dreaming of being an All Black anyway. He is from a league family in Auckland, with his brother, John, currently with the Dolphins NRL club, and three Toia cousins at the Sydney Roosters, most notably Robert, who last year made his State of Origin (Queensland) and test (Tonga) debuts, as well as being crowned NRL Dally M Rookie of the Year.

In any case, there are sure to be plenty of ‘what-ifs’ if he keeps up his so-far-splendid season, which has now seen him bag nine tries (equal with Brumbies loose forward Charlie Cale at the top of the competition charts) in six appearances.

Incredibly, Fineanganofo could have already had three hat-tricks this year, but for the stunningly unselfish pass he gave to Josh Moorby to score closer to the posts in the team’s season-opener against Moana Pasifika.

Like Moorby, who is back this season after a move to France that he ended up cutting from two seasons to one, Fineanganofo proposed a return to New Zealand is “definitely on the cards” in the future, after what is sure to be a challenging time in his new environment.

Newcastle, since their promotion to the premiership for 2020-21, have logged finishes of third-to-last, second-to-last, last, last and last, and, unsurprisingly, sit last in their current campaign, and with a change of coach earlier this month, with Welshman Stephen Jones taking the reins.

“Who knows, he might be back, the world’s a transient place now… I’m never a believer in one decision determines what happens in the future, it’s how well he does when he goes over there,” Laidlaw said.

“I’m just loving the way he’s playing. Dupes [Kirifi] has pointed out how smart he is, I’ve seen that for five or six years now [previously as coach of the All Blacks Sevens] how quickly he can change and adapt his game, and grow.

“So I don’t care about next year, he’s here this year and we’ll make the most of it.”