With only three weeks until our first game of the 2017 Mitre 10 Cup, Otago Rugby are thrilled to officially announce our latest signing, Alhambra-Union’s electric left winger, Jona Nareki.

Jona was born in Sigatoka Fiji, but moved to New Zealand shortly after and has been here ever since. He attended Fielding High School where he made waves on the rugby scene, making the New Zealand Schools Barbarians Side in 2015, during his last year of school.

His credentials have continued to grow since leaving school after being called into the World Cup winning New Zealand Under 20 side earlier this year. He certainly made an impression on the New Zealand U20 Assistant Coach & Otago Mitre 10 Cup Head Coach, Cory Brown, who had this to say on the latest signing:

“Jona Nareki has progressed through our Otago Academy pathway and is a very talented and versatile footy player. His 2017 season thus far has been extremely noteworthy, preforming very well during the club season (for Alhambra-Union), for the New Zealand U20’s and also for the Highlanders during pre-season. He has a good left foot and is an electric player with fantastic footwork, not to mention his great skill set. I am excited to see how he will go on the stadium for Otago during this year’s Mitre 10 Cup”.

Jona is chomping at the bit to kick off his first Mitre 10 Cup season and continue to grow his footy whilst wearing the blue & gold. His childhood friend, Vilimoni Koroi was named in the squad earlier this year so expect to see some of that famous ‘Fijian flair’ when these two get out on the field!