What A Team! - Isaiah's Warrior Mum

The mother and son are in a league of their own

- Cloe Willetts

As Lorina Papali’i sprinted around the field at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium in a purple Warriors jersey and braids, she was too fast to catch the eye of the young man cheering from the sideline as he warmed up for his own game.

Wearing matching plaits, Isaiah Papali’i was about to unleash the same agility as the woman in front of him – one of the team’s first female NRL players ... and his mother!

“We were the first mum and son to play for the same NRL club at the same time and on the same grounds,” says Warriors player Isaiah, 20, the only child of former Kiwi Fern Lorina, 42. “We even wore the same number 15 jersey!”

That double-header game day last August held plenty of significance for the sportsmad duo, who live under the same roof, with Isaiah’s dad Jerry, 43, in West Auckland.

Lorina explains, “Isaiah was playing against Newcastle, where I was brought up after being born in the Waikato. Funnily enough, his debut for the Warriors was also against Newcastle.”

For promising front rower Isaiah, that clash was one of about 30 played with the Warriors so far, but for CrossFit instructor Lorina, it was her first since retiring eight years ago.

“I played league from 1994 to 2008, and women’s NRL wasn’t talked of in that time,” she says. “It never looked like it was possible, but I always wanted to do it.”

So when Lorina, a former New Zealand Rugby League women’s player of the year, heard the Warriors were introducing a female NRL team, she pulled on her boots and spent months preparing and trialling.