David Fifita ( to, Tēvita Fifita) (born 28 June 1989) is a

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

international

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who plays as a for

Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the c ...

in the

Betfred Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. He previously played for the Lezignan Sangliers in the

Elite One Championship Elite 1 is the top level rugby league competition in France, sanctioned by the French Rugby League Federation. The season runs from September to April, which is in contrast to the majority of other major domestic rugby league competitions wor ...

and the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

. He has spent time on loan from

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

at the

Dewsbury Rams The Dewsbury Rams are a professional English rugby league club based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire that compete in the Championship. They play their home games at the Tetley's Stadium, on Owl Lane. The Rams' main fanbase comes from their hometo ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Background

He was born in Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia. He attended

Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown is a Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day school for boys, located in Blacktown, a western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History The College was founded in 1952 by the Patrician Bro ...

and

Blacktown Boys High School Blacktown Boys High School (BBHS) is a government-funded single-sex academically partially selective secondary day school for boys, located in Blacktown, a western Sydney suburb of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1956 as Blackto ...

. Fifita is of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

and Tongan descent and played his junior rugby league for St Patricks Blacktown and

Doonside Roos Doonside Roos Rugby League Football Club is an Australian rugby league football club based in Doonside, New South Wales formed in 1968. Notable Juniors Notable First Grade Players that have played at Doonside Roos include: *Jarrod Sammut (2007- ...

, before being signed by the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

. Fifita is the twin brother of fellow

player

Andrew Fifita Andrew Fifita ( to, ʻAnitelū Fifita) (born 28 June 1989) is a retired professional rugby league footballer who played as a . He has played for Tonga and Australia at international level. Fifita previously played for the Cronulla-Sutherland ...

, and cousin of

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

player David Fifita He is not related to

John Fifita John Fifita ( to, Sione Fifita) (born 28 July 1959) is a Tongan former professional rugby league footballer who represented Tonga in the 1986 Pacific Cup and played as a professional in England and Australia. Playing career Fifita played for ...

, a former St George Dragons player. Fifita's elder brother

Latu Fifita Latu Fifita (born 29 October 1987) is a professional rugby league footballer of Indigenous Australian and Tongan descent who most recently played professionally for Workington Town in the Kingstone Press Championship. He plays as a and can a ...

plays for

Workington Town Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in west Cumbria. Their stadium is Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team. They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 and ...

in the

Kingstone Press Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football League, the governing body for the sport in England, a ...

Playing career

Early career

In 2009, Fifita played for the Wests Tigers'

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

team In 2010, he played for

alongside his brother. In 2011, he moved on to the Tigers'

New South Wales Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

teams,

Balmain Ryde-Eastwood Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995–96) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in t ...

and

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly r ...

. At the end of 2012, he joined the

Lézignan Sangliers Lézignan may refer to: In geography: * Lézignan, Hautes-Pyrénées, a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department, France * Lézignan-Corbières, a commune in the Aude department, France * Lézignan-la-Cèbe Lézignan-la-Cèbe (; oc, Lesinhan ...

in the

. In June 2013, after finishing his season with Lézignan, he attracted the interest of NRL clubs,

and

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

. He eventually signed a contract with the Sharks for the rest of the

2013 NRL season The 2013 NRL season was the 106th season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia. The National Rugby League's main competition, named the 2013 Telstra Premiership after major sponsors Telstra Corporation, was contested by sixte ...

, the club where his twin brother

Andrew Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...

played. After playing 6 games for the Sharks in the NSW Cup, he re-signed with them for 2014. Fifita was a member of the 2013 NSW Cup premiership side which defeated Windsor Wolves 38-6 in the grand final.

2014

In Round 2 of the

2014 NRL season The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand, for the Auckland Nines, replacing the Rugby Leagu ...

, Fifita made his

début for Cronulla-Sutherland against the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

. On 17 July 2014, he re-signed with Cronulla-Sutherland on a two-year contract.

2015

On 13 February 2015, Fifita played for the Indigenous All Stars against the NRL All Stars in the

2015 All Stars match The 2015 All Stars Match was the fifth annual representative exhibition match played between the Indigenous All Stars and the NRL All Stars. It was held on 13 February 2015, returning from a one-year hiatus. The Indigenous side was selected t ...

. In October, Fifita was selected in Tonga's 48-man train-on squad for the Asia-Pacific Qualifier for the

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

. He would go on to make the final 18-man squad where he would be named the 18th man and would fill in for any late injuries, suspensions or tactical changes. He would go on to play in that match, in what was only his second appearance for Tonga, after filling in for

Leilani Latu Leilani Latu (born 5 February 1993) is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who played as a most recently for the Warrington Wolves in the Super League. Latu has spent time on loan from Warrington at the Widnes Vikings in the Betfred ...

2016

On 7 May, Fifita played for Tonga against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

in the 2016 Polynesian Cup. On 10 June, after gaining a release from Cronulla-Sutherland, he joined

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

on a one-year contract, with an option for a second year, effective immediately. Fifita turned into a big fans favourite at

due to his physical dominance in the middle of the park.

2017

Fifita made 21 appearances for Wakefield Trinity in the 2017 Super League season where the club shocked many by finishing fifth on the table.

2018

In the 2018 Super League season, Fifita made 17 appearances for Wakefield as the club finished 7th on the table.

2019

Fifita played 22 games for Wakefield in the

2019 Super League season Super League XXIV, known as the Betfred Super League XXIV for sponsorship reasons, was the 2019 iteration of and the 24th season of the Super League and 125th season of rugby league in Great Britain. Twelve teams competed over 29 rounds, incl ...

where the club finished ninth on the table.

2020

On 28 August, Fifita was stood down by Wakefield after he refused to wear a GPS tracking device for coronavirus protocols. Fifita played only nine games for Wakefield in the 2020 Super League season as the club finished second bottom.

2021

Fifita played 25 games for Wakefield Trinity in the 2021 Super League season which saw the club finish in 10th place.

2022

In round 18 of the 2022 Super League season, Fifita scored a try and was later sent to the sin bin during Wakefield's 38-26 loss against

Toulouse Olympique Toulouse Olympique or TO XIII is a professional rugby league club in Toulouse, south-west France. Founded in 1937, two years after the French Rugby League Federation, the club is a six-time winner of the French Rugby League Championship. The ...

Magic Weekend The Magic Weekend (known as the Dacia Magic Weekend for sponsorship reasons) is an annual event organised by the Rugby Football League in which an entire round of Super League matches is played over a weekend at a single stadium to promote the ...

. After seven seasons at Wakefield Trinity, Fifita announced that he would be departing the club at the end of the year. Fifita's final game for Wakefield was a 16-14 loss against

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

. After leaving Wakefield he joined

The Entrance Tigers The Entrance Tigers are a rugby league club based at The Entrance, New South Wales, Australia.They are competing in the 2022 Denton Engineering Cup (NSWRL Presidents Cup Northern Conference) & Central Coast Division Rugby League. They have prev ...

in the

Central Coast Division Rugby League The Central Coast Division of Country Rugby League is a rugby league competition based on the Central Coast of New South Wales between Sydney and Newcastle. It is currently ran by Terrigal Junior and longtime volunteer Ben Spackman he has bee ...

2023

In May, it was announced that Fifita would come out of semi-retirement to play for Wakefield Trinity after the club had lost its opening 13 matches. Fifita made his return in the clubs

loss against

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

in round 14. In round 15, Fifita played in Wakefield's 24-14 upset victory over Leeds to end a 14-game losing streak. Fifita played a total of 12 matches for Wakefield Trinity in the

Super League XXVIII {{Infobox rugby football league season , title = Super League XXVIII , league = Super League , logo = , pixels = , duration = 27 rounds + playoffs , no_of_teams = 12 , hi ...

season as the club finished bottom of the table and were relegated to the

RFL Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the Rugby Football League Championship Second Division, second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football Lea ...

which ended their 24-year stay in the top flight.

References

External links

Wakefield Trinity profileSL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fifita, David 1989 births Living people Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Australian rugby league players Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in France Australian twins Balmain Ryde-Eastwood Tigers players Combined Nationalities rugby league team players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players Dewsbury Rams players

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Indigenous All Stars players Indigenous Australian rugby league players Lézignan Sangliers players Rugby league players from Blacktown Rugby league props Tonga national rugby league team players Tongan rugby league players Twin sportspeople Wakefield Trinity players Western Suburbs Magpies NSW Cup players