By Pesi Fonua

Australian Rugby Union football star Mark Gerrard and his sister Mo'onia, an Australian national netball player spent Christmas in Tonga reconnecting with their family at Nukunuku.

It was recharging time for Mark, a Wallaby and the fullback for the Canberra Super 14 franchise, the Brumbies, and his older sister Mo'onia a member of the Australian Diamond national netball team that won the World Cup.

"I think the best thing for us is coming to Tonga, because during the past five years it has been full on," said Mark.

Mo'onia agreed, "Get in touch with our roots, meet the family and clear our heads and get more inspiration to go back and play better than this year."

"It is good to be here, and relax," said Mark who was still puffing after playing a game of cricket at the lawn of the family home on the outskirts of the village of Nukunuku in the mid-summer heat when I arrived for a chat.

"It is good to be with our cousins. The last time we were together was about four or five years ago. In the earlier days we were here every year," said Mark, who was trying to make the most of his short stay in Tonga. "I am returning to Canberra on January 1, because we will start training for the Super 14 on January 3."

Mark (26) has a young family of his own and is looking at life with a different perspective. "I would like to stay in Australia and play for the Wallabies, but the hind side of life doesn't necessary present life as you want it. So I just sit back and weigh up what is best for us."

For Mo'onia (28) her immediate program for 2009 will be the Australian National Championship, to be followed by a world tour, when the Australian Diamond will play New Zealand, Jamaica, South Africa and England.

"Playing against New Zealand has always been very competitive, but recently we have found Jamaica to be unpredictable. They would introduce a new young player who could jump and do things that really surprise us."

Netball World Cup

The 2008 season has been very special for Mo'onia. She became a full-time professional netball player and the Australian Diamond won the World Cup. Mo'onia also moved from Sydney and has been playing for Adelaide, and she was also awarded the Ellis Weber Netball Trophy for 2008.

With a Tongan mother from Nukunuku and an Australian father the two members of one family become international sport stars.

"It definitely has something to do with the genes," joked Mo'onia. "But it is not unusual, there are the Palus, Kefus and many others."

Mark said that it was not drummed into them to do well in sports, but he recalled that his father, Mark, used to drive for miles when they were young to get them to sports venues.



"Mum, Kalasi, was an athlete, a runner who represented Tonga in the South Pacific Games, and Dad was a rugby player, who played for Nukunuku, when Nukunuku was a dominant force in Tongan rugby."

It was many years ago that Nukunuku produced some very outstanding sportsmen and women, but in recent years it was as though that the people of Nukunuku decided to stop playing sports.

Mark said that in one way or another they would like to contribute to the development of sports in Nukunuku.