Fred Kaihea's story starts in the streets of south Auckland.
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He was a teenager bouncing between homes in Christchurch and a notoriously tough area in Auckland. He could so easily have been swept into a world of crime and violence.
The thing is, his father Feleti and the aunty and uncle Kaihea spent most of his time with ruled with an iron fist. They had to.
"I went to school and home, that was it," the new ACT Brumbies signing said.
"It was definitely a lot louder around the streets than here. There were more crimes, violent stuff, a lot of fights every day after school. It was a whole different [world] to what it was here."
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Here, where Kaihea helped the Queanbeyan Whites keep their John I Dent Cup dream alive with a thrilling 31-17 win over Wests at Campese Field on Saturday.
A last-ditch Brendan Jimenez try from 60 metres out kept Wests out of bonus point territory. Now the finals equation is this for Queanbeyan: beat Royals and hope Uni-Norths beat Wests next week, or beat Royals with a bonus point and hope Wests get no more than four competition points.
Kaihea is seen by many as a cut above at this level. It's fitting, given he once made a promise to himself and his late father: he was going to make something of himself, and Super Rugby, "that was our dream".
"That was the dream. That was our dream, especially growing up in NZ and moving from uncle to uncle," Kaihea said.
"I wasn't really in a stable house, so my mum and the rest of my siblings were back in Tonga so I was going from house to house and staying with aunties and uncles."
His path to the Brumbies started when Kaihea crossed the Tasman for a holiday as a 14-year-old. He met his cousin Francis, and from that moment "just decided to stay here [with extended family] and try to do something with sport".
Kaihea first started playing rugby league, but made the switch when his aunty's friend was coaching a junior Whites team and was running short on numbers. That was his destiny mapped out.
At 18, he helped the ACT Schoolboys to their first national title in 29 years, but was overlooked by national selectors. His big break was supposed to come two years later when he was named in the Australian under 20s for a World Cup.
Then his world turned upside down. He fractured his ankle and missed the Junior Wallabies' trip overseas. Then he got the call from his mother Malia.
Kaihea's father Feleti had died.
"To hear my mum call and tell me, when I'd already done my foot and lost a ticket to the World Cup, was pretty tough," Kaihea said.
Kaihea could have gone one of two ways, but he gave it everything. The young prop had long sworn off fast food and had housemates trio of Zeph Tuinona, Yabaki Seeto and then Isaac Seeto willing him on.
So imagine the reaction when Brumbies coach Dan McKellar pulled Kaihea aside earlier this year and told him he'd be making his Super Rugby AU debut.
"I couldn't hold it in, I just burst out into tears and he understood why. All of the struggles and the injuries I'd overcome in the past few years, I just couldn't hold it in," Kaihea said.
Dan Hawke was the man asked to hand Kaihea his jersey on debut. Hawke had coached him in representative teams and knew just how hard Kaihea had worked for this moment.
"I tried to hold it together and as soon as we looked at each other, we started bawling our eyes out because we knew how much it meant to both of us for him to get that jersey. I'm shaking here saying that now," Hawke said.
"He's just been working as a removalist for three or four years whilst he has been in the academy, doing long hours of hard and physical work, and then having to come to academy four afternoons a week.
"To get a contract after going through all of that, it shows you how good he is and how resilient he is to chase that dream."
AT A GLANCE
John I Dent Cup round 14: QUEANBEYAN WHITES 31 (Ben Gordon, Reece Tapine, Jackson Stuart, Jacob Church, Brendan Jimenez tries; Liam Richman 3 conversions) bt WESTS LIONS 17 (Piliu Tavake, Declan Meredith, Matthew Toward tries; Meredith conversion) at Campese Field.
TUGGERANONG VIKINGS 23 (Patrick Maka, Kichie Navuso, Kieran Reilly tries; Isaac Thompson conversion; Thompson 2 penalties) bt CANBERRA ROYRALS 15 (Lincoln Smith, Rory Scott tries; Thomas Hallam conversion) at Phillip Oval.
UNI-NORTHS OWLS 39 (Will Sankey 2, Irae Simone, Callum Frawley Richardson, Jordan Thompson tries; Thompson 4 conversions) bt GUNGAHLIN EAGLES 12 (Jamie Mazzarol-Kotz. Brendon Taueki tries; Tom Haddad conversion) at ANU North Oval.