Their sisters have printed 40 T-shirts with Samoa’s rugby emblem on one half and Fiji’s on the other. Across the front are the words “Tagicakibau” and “Brothers.”
The Tagicakibau brothers, Samoa winger Sailosi and Fiji winger Michael, have been gathering tickets this week to make sure all 40 shirts have a family member to cover on Sunday at Eden Park where their teams meet in a Pacific Islands World Cup showdown before a 60,000-sellout crowd.
The last thing left to wait for are the lineups.
The brothers might not even play.
Sailosi twinged his hamstring in the 17-10 loss to Wales on Sunday. Michael has yet to get on the field for Fiji in his first World Cup.
“If called upon, it will be a special day for me and my family,” said Michael, who at 26 is two years younger than Sailosi.
The Auckland-born brothers have been joking about a possible clash ever since Samoa qualified for Fiji’s pool in 2009. They met up for meals with their parents on Monday and Tuesday, but there was only a little banter.
“It felt a bit weird, a bit awkward, to be honest,” Sailosi said. “We tried not to talk too much about rugby. I think we’ll leave it until after the game on Sunday.”
Michael said: “Being the younger brother I like to keep a bit quiet and humble.”
How they ended up with different teams starts with their parents: Their father, Isikeli, is Fijian, and their mother, Lealofi, is Samoan.
Sailosi had never been in touch with his Samoan side until he traveled with a New Zealand Marist sevens team to a tournament in Samoa in 2000. When Samoa found out he was one of theirs — half, anyway — he was invited to play sevens there and stayed. From the national sevens team he graduated to the 15s in 2003.
“When I got a chance to put on the blue jersey, I met a lot of relatives I wouldn’t have met normally,” he said. “I’m proud of my Samoan and Fijian heritage.”
The brothers played for Taranaki Province in New Zealand before moving to England. Michael joined Saracens and Sailosi, London Irish, and they have met in the English Premiership. Michael has also faced Leicester’s Alesana Tuilagi, Samoa’s left-winger.
“Both my brother and Tuilagi are very physical and quick wingers for their size,” Michael said. “This will be a massive encounter, it will be very physical, not only for the outside backs, but right across the park. It will be a massive game for both teams.”
Sailosi, in his third World Cup, said he was happy for Michael when he was first chosen for Fiji: “I guess they didn’t want to let another [Tagicakibau] get away,” he said.
He added he was proud of his brother, on the back of only four caps since 2007, to make Fiji’s World Cup squad in a position with a lot of depth.
As for their parents, the boys said they would be cheering for both of them.
“I don’t think they’ll mind which team wins, but I’m hoping it’s going to be the boys in white,” Michael said with a smile.
“There’s a lot at stake and hopefully we’ll both get a chance,” Sailosi said. “I’ll be playing for the 14 brothers next to me for the win and hopefully I’ll be happier than Michael. After the game we can be blood brothers again.”
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
RSS