Appeal launched for Tongan Prince

Malcolm Brown, Rugby Heaven
Saturday, December 23, 2006

SYDNEY University Football Club and Newington College have launched an appeal for one of their most outstanding athletes of the 1960s, Tongan Steve Finau, who was so badly injured in a car accident last month he may never walk again.

Finau, who played in the GPS Firsts in cricket and rugby in 1965 and 1966, and won the GPS open hurdles and shot put in 1966, went on to become a brilliant back-line player for Sydney University.

He won the premiership with the Students in 1968, and toured the United States with the club in 1969. He then went to the University of California Berkley, after which he entered public administration in Tonga and developed cultural, sporting and business ties between Tonga and Australia.

On November 5 this year, Finau was a passenger in a car in Tonga involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle. He suffered horrific injuries, including spinal damage, and has been hospitalised in New Zealand.

Finau does not have the means to meet the huge costs of treatment. Andrew Murray, a director of the Sydney University Football Club Foundation, said Finau had no insurance and little to fall back on.

The prognosis for his recovery was "not good" - a terrible outlook for a man once dubbed by coach Dave Brockhoff as the "Tongan Prince".

Contacts:
www.sydneyunirugby.com.au
www.newingtoncollege.nsw.edu.au