Sonny Whakarau (born 13 January 1966) is a New Zealand former professional

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 played professionally in England and represented the New Zealand Māori.

Playing career

A Manawatu representative, Whakarau moved south in 1986, joining the Upper Hutt Tigers and played till the 1991 season

Wellington Rugby League Wellington Rugby League is the local sporting body responsible for the administration of Rugby league in the Greater Wellington region. It is responsible for the local competition of the same name, as well as its representative team, the Wellingto ...

and becoming a

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

representative. Sonny first went to the UK in 1991 and played for Batley Rugby League club, he then got signed by Bramley Rugby League club by former Great Britain Rugby League coach Maurice Bamford and had two successful seasons there in 1992 and 1993, In the 1994/1995 English season Whakarau joined

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

and helped them win promotion to the First Division under the coaching of former Welsh and Great Britain hard man Tony Fisher. He played for the

Sheffield Eagles The Sheffield Eagles are a professional rugby league club that play in the Championship (rugby league), Betfred Championship. The club play their home games at the Olympic Legacy Park (OLP) on the former site of Don Valley Stadium, their forme ...

in 1995/96 season. Whakarau represented New Zealand Māori at the 1996 Pacific Cup and then played in their defeats of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

the same year. In 1996 he joined the

Keighley Cougars The Keighley Cougars are a professional rugby league club from Keighley in West Yorkshire, England who compete in League 1, the third tier of English rugby league. Keighley's home ground, Cougar Park has a capacity of 7,800. History Early y ...

. Later in the season he was loaned to the

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 ...

. He played for the Wakefield Trinity (Wildcats) in 1998, and 1999. Whakarau then returned home and played for the Levin Knights and Manawatu. In 2000 he was appointed

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of the Manawatu team but handed the coaching reins over to former coach Paul Sixtus after one game. He was later appointed the

Manawatu Rugby League Manawatu Rugby League was formed in 1957. They are currently part of the Mid-Central zone along with Taranaki Rugby League. Kiwi Players Only one player from Manawatu has ever made the New Zealand national rugby league team. This was Kiwi number ...

development officer, in 2001. In 2002 the

Central Falcons The Manawatu rugby league team are a rugby league team that represents the Manawatu Rugby League in New Zealand Rugby League competitions. They have the nickname the Mustangs and between 2002 and 2007 competed in the Bartercard Cup as the Centr ...

were admitted to the

Bartercard Cup The Bartercard Cup (successor of the Lion Red Cup) was the top level rugby league club competition in New Zealand from 2000 until 2007. For the entire life of the tournament it was sponsored by Bartercard. The cup was administered by the New Zeala ...

and Whakarau became a regular in the side, playing close to 50 games over the next three seasons until his retirement from representative football at the end of the 2005 season. In 2004 Whakarau played for the Levin Lions in the Western Alliance club competition. Whakarau was selected for New Zealand Māori as part of the

2004 Pacific Cup The 2004 Pacific Rim Championship and the 2004 Pacific Cup was the 9th Pacific Cup, a rugby league tournament held between Pacific teams. The tournament was hosted in Auckland and for the first time split into two competitions; The Pacific Rim Cham ...

squad.Pacific Cup tourney to be Whakarau's swansong
''The Evening Standard'', 13 October 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whakarau, Sonny 1966 births Living people Doncaster R.L.F.C. players Keighley Cougars players Manawatu rugby league team players New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand Māori rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league coaches New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England People from Levin, New Zealand Rugby league players from Manawatū-Whanganui Rugby league second-rows Sheffield Eagles (1984) players Upper Hutt Tigers players Wakefield Trinity players Wellington rugby league team players