Willis is loving Welsh redemption
WILLIS HALAHOLO’S journey from Auckland gang member to Wales Grand Slam-chaser is a dizzying one.
The New Zealander of Tongan descent has turned heads in the Six Nations with his fast feet, as a substitute in big cameos against Scotland and England.
And next weekend he could start his first Test, against Italy. He is loving this fresh chapter – knowing that his life could easily have turned out very differently.
At 30, Halaholo looks back at the lost soul he once was, sleeping in a garage at his in-laws’ house, living off fast food and beer – and shudders at what might have been instead.
He recalled: “In my last year of high school I ended up having a daughter.
“It messed with my head a bit, and I ended up going down a different path, with drinking and getting into a gang culture.
“I didn’t know much about being a father until my daughter was about two or three and started to talk.
“Up until then I felt like a stranger to her. It was then I started to change things. I got there just in time.”
His daughter, Atu, has three sisters now, and can speak Welsh.
Halaholo, snapped up by Cardiff Blues five years ago, qualified for Wales on residency in 2019, and added: “I have a lot of family who wasted their rugby talent went down that path and never made it back.”
ISAAC HAYDEN has demanded Newcastle avoid a spiral of panic as they battle back from Matt Ritchie’s bust-up with Steve Bruce.
Midfielder Hayden will lead the Geordies into a crucial relegation battle against former St James’ Park chief Sam Allardyce and West Brom today, calling for a “calm, levelheaded” attitude to be restored.
Newcastle are just three points ahead of third-bottom Fulham and on a run of two wins in 17 games. Boss Bruce has patched up a trainingground row with midfielder Ritchie this week and is refusing to give up on his reign.
Hayden said: “This is our time now. We’re not going to be judged by our formation against Manchester United or Chelsea. We’re going to be judged on West Brom, Aston Villa and Brighton. Those games are crucial.
“The problem I have with it is that people go, ‘Oh, there’s no realism’.
“But what do you want people to do? Do you want everyone to panic? Be like, ‘Oh God, we’re in a relegation battle’. That’s not going to solve anything either.
“But what’s also not going to solve anything is saying, ‘No, we’re fine’. It’s about being calm, level-headed, not too happy and not too low. It is about being stable and focused and believing in a team and yourself.
“The way you go about it is to ask, ‘Would Fulham rather be in our position or their position?’. They’d rather be us. They have to win games to catch us. We have to win games to be safe.”
Striker Andy Carroll said: “We have to stick together. We are not producing the results we want and we need three points. We are fighting and have to show what we are about and turn it around in a positive way.”
West Brom boss Allardyce suffered unpopularity on Tyneside like his mate Bruce, who said: “We’ve been in it a long, long time. I have the hugest respect for what Sam’s done throughout his career.”