Peta Hiku

Peta Hiku

Hiku while playing in the NSW Cup in 2013
Personal information
Born	(1992-12-04) 4 December 1992 Gisborne, New Zealand
Height	188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	97 kg (15 st 4 lb)
Playing information
Position	Fullback, Wing, Centre
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2013–	Manly Warringah	47	22	3	0	94
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2014	New Zealand	5	0	0	0	0
Source: RLP

Peta Hiku (born 4 December 1992 in New Zealand) is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles of the National Rugby League (NRL), after previously being a member of the New Zealand Warriors National Youth Competition (NYC) squad. Hiku primarily plays either at Fullback or on the Wing, although he also played some of his junior football was at Five-eighth and can play in the Centres.

Background

Born in New Zealand, Hiku played his junior football for the Manurewa Marlins and represented the Counties Manukau Stingrays in the National Competition.^[1] He played for the New Zealand Warriors' Under-20s team in 2012, and had the second most metres gained during the 2012 NYC season behind team mate Ligi Sao.^[2] At the end of 2012, Hiku was named the New Zealand Warriors Under-20s Player of the Year. Also in 2012, Hiku played for the Junior Kiwis, and was talked about as a future test player for New Zealand.

Professional playing career

2013

In 2013, Hiku (and long time Marlins and Warriors team mate Ligi Sao) left the Warriors and joined Sydney NRL club Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, playing mostly at fullback for the Luke Williamson-coached Sea Eagles NYC team. In Round 6 of the 2013 NRL season he made his NRL debut on the wing for the Sea Eagles in place of the injured David Williams against the Cronulla Sharks at Brookvale Oval, scoring a try on debut in Manly's 25-18 win.^[3][4]

After Williams returned to the First Grade team, Hiku spent rounds 7 and 8 with the NYC team before he was called back into the team by coach Geoff Toovey to play fullback in the Round 9 clash with the Sydney Roosters. Hiku's call up was due to a back injury suffered by representative fullback Brett Stewart in Manly's 24-18 win over St. George Illawarra in Monday Night Football at WIN Jubilee Oval in Round 8. With Stewart expected to be out for at least four or five weeks, the 20 year old New Zealander was given the chance by Toovey to prove himself in the top grade. Hiku marked his first game in the Sea Eagles #1 jumper by producing a strong display in a disappointing 16-4 loss to the Sydney Roosters at Brookvale Oval.

In twenty games for Manly (as of 20 April 2014), Hiku has scored seven tries and impressed with his displays at fullback in place of the injured Stewart. He has also proven himself to be a reliable last line of defence for Manly, with 25 tackles and only 7 missed tackles in his 6 First Grade games.

In his first game of NRL finals football in 2013, again in place of an injured Brett Stewart, Hiku was judged as man of the match despite Manly going down 4-0 to the 2013 minor premiers the Sydney Roosters at the Sydney Football Stadium. Hiku ran for a club record 297 metres on the night and backed that up by running 231 in the following week's Semi-final win over Cronulla at the SFS. Stewart made a surprise return from injury in the Preliminary final win over South Sydney and Hiku was considered unlucky to miss a place on the bench both against Souths and in Manly's Grand Final team which lost 26-18 to the Roosters.

2014

As of Round 7 of the 2014 NRL season, Peta Hiku had played in all seven games for the Sea Eagles following injuries to other players, though when they (Brett Stewart and winger Jorge Taufua) returned to the side coach Geoff Toovey has retained Hiku in place of the out of form David Williams. Manly have offered the young New Zealander a three year contract reportedly worth A$750,000 though he has also attracted interest from Canterbury-Bankstown who are searching for a fullback to replace the departed Ben Barba.^[5] Hiku, who has expressed his desire to stay with the Sea Eagles, also reportedly turned down a one million dollar contract to return to the New Zealand Warriors despite the opportunity to be closer to his family.

On 2 May 2014, Hiku played his first test for New Zealand when he played at fullback in their 30-18 loss to Australia in the 2014 ANZAC Test at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Hiku has since cemented his place on the wing for the Sea Eagles, even keeping 2013 NRL top tryscorer David Williams in NSW Cup before "The Wolfman" was suspended for the season by the NRL due to a betting scandal. As of Round 20 of the 2014 season, Hiku is the Sea Eagles leading tryscorer and currently sits in 4th place in the NRL with 14 tries.

Following the 2014 NRL season, Hiku finished the season as Manly's Top Try-scorer with 17 tries and had played every minute of every game during the 2014 season.

On 23 September 2014, Hiku was selected in New Zealand's Four Nations train-on squad.^[6] On 7 October 2014, Hiku was selected in New Zealand final 24 man squad for the 2014 Four Nations.^[7][8] He played superbly at fullback in the Kiwi 30-12 defeat of Australia on 25 October 2014 in the first game of the Four Nations tournament, helping the Kiwis to a 30-12 win over Australia, as well as their first win over Australia since the 2010 Four Nations final. He went on to featured in every tournament game for the Kiwis, playing every minute of every game at fullback.

References

External links

• 2013 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles profile