Welcome home: Highlander U20 rep Peceli Malanicagi back in Whanganui colours
By Jared Smith
The average Whanganui rugby punter may not recognise the surname, but they will respect the bloodline of Steelform Whanganui import and homecoming player Peceli Malanicagi.
A City College 1st XV alumnus, Malanicagi joins an outside backs group in the Whanganui squad who must fill the void left by the departed Vereniki Tikoisolomone.
Having been playing club rugby in Otago with Alhambra-Union, Malanicagi is the younger brother of Highlanders, Otago and New Zealand Sevens standout Jona Nareki – both young men Fijian born, with Nareki changing his Malanicagi surname when he received his NZ citizenship.
The two brothers got to play together for the first time last August for Alhambra-Union, as Nareki took a rare opportunity for some club rugby after being named the Highlanders Rookie of the Year, while Covid-19 curtailed his sevens duties.
Malanicagi is building some impressive credentials in his own right.
He first got noticed at fullback for City College when they won the 2017 Whanganui Open Grade final against Whanganui Collegiate 2nd XV, scoring what proved the match-winning try in that 38-28 comeback win.
A 2018 Whanganui Under 18’s squad member, Malanicagi would transfer to Feilding High and in 2019 the winger scored his school’s only try in their upset 13-8 victory over a very strong Collegiate 1st XV in the Central North Island competition.
The win meant Feilding snuck into the playoffs in fourth spot, while Collegiate finished second, meaning they had to ultimately travel for the final, rather than hosting, against eventual champions St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton.
Malanicagi was chosen at the end of that year for the NZ Fiji School Sevens team, in the same side as then Collegiate loose forward and now fellow Whanganui squad member Semi Vodosese.
His most impressive achievement so far was this April when he was selected in the Highlanders Under 20’s team for the Super Rugby Aotearoa U20’s tournament in Taupo – scoring a try in his side’s win over NZ Barbarians.
Whanganui coach Jason Caskey said assistant coach Jason Hamlin had been watching Malanicagi and given him the seal of approval to join the squad.
“He looks like an athletic boy, got a bit of size as well.”
