Kieron Fonotia will be looking to say farewell to New Zealand in style this weekend. ahead of his move to the Ospreys, when he features in his second provincial championship final for Tasman Makos.
The 28-year old centre/wing will hop onto a plane and head to South Wales next week, but before departing he has the small matter of a Mitre 10 Cup Final against Canterbury at the AMI Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday.
Fonotia, who played at outside centre in Sunday’s semi-final win over Taranaki, also featured in the 2014 final, scoring a try in Tasman’s 36-32 loss, coincidentally also against Taranaki.
He has been a regular fixture in a star studded Crusaders back line over the last three seasons, since making his Super Rugby debut at the start of the 2014 season, when he scored a try with his first touch as a 70th minute replacement in a 14-13 win over Stormers.
At the end of that season he started the Super Rugby Final on the wing as Crusaders were defeated 33-32 by the Waratahs.
His arrival in the latter part of next week will provide the Ospreys with a timely boost as they look to build on a promising start to the season, increasing the options available to Steve Tandy behind the scrum as they look to compete in both the Guinness PRO12 and the European Rugby Challenge Cup.
You can watch Kieron in Mitre 10 Cup Final action on Sky Sports 5 from 7.15am on Saturday morning.