Kevin Naiqama confirms retirement after Grand Final triumph
Kevin Naiqama celebrates Grand Final triumph
Kevin Naiqama has confirmed he will retire from rugby league after he scored two tries to help St Helens beat Catalans Dragons 12-10 in the Betfred Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford.
The Catalans hit the front again straight after St Helens’ Tommy Makinson was sin-binned. Mike McMeeken went over the whitewash but the Saints clinched victory with a Lachlan Coote conversion after Naiqama scored for the second time of the night.
Fairy-tale ending
After the game, Fijian centre Kevin Naiqama was asked if he had a change of heart following the victory and said: “I haven’t changed my mind. I’m definitely going to miss this team, the staff, the players, the fans, I cannot speak highly enough of the club.
“They have done more for me than I have done for them, it is definitely the right time for me to go home.
“All I wanted to do was do my job and do what we had to do to win, at the end of the day we have got the result and it’s something that has been building for three years, we’re just going to enjoy this and reminisce.
“This is my last game as a professional player, you talk about a fairy-tale ending, you could not have written a better script.
“I think it’s time for retirement, but just with Covid and other factors outside of rugby it has led to my decision to go back home.”
The 32-year-old also won the Harry Sunderland Trophy after being named player of the match.
“It’s an honour to receive it from Rob Burrow himself, he is a true legend of the game who won so much and I was so grateful to meet him and, being the first Fijian player to win the award, I am glad it is something I did,” said Naiqama.
St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf said: “It was a nerve-racking last 10 minutes, we put ourselves in a great position, we gave them the ball back when we didn’t have to.
“Our defence there to finish that game when there’s all that fatigue, I think we are the only team in the competition that can do that.
“We’ve not just worked hard this year, we have worked hard over the last three years.
“It was a great final, that in a normal game you get sin bins, I thought (referee) Liam (Moore) did a good job, I did not agree with every decision but I thought things went both ways.”