Valentine Holmes Played 21 Tests for Australia. On Saturday He Plays Against Them for the Cook Islands, in Townsville
Valentine Holmes will play fullback for the Cook Islands against the Kangaroos at Queensland Country Bank Stadium on Saturday night. He won two World Cups with Australia, and the match is in Townsville, where he grew up.
“It’s a bit wild to be playing against the Aussies, who I played a fair bit of footy with,” he told nrl.com. “But just to do it in my hometown in Townsville to verse those guys, it’s going to be pretty special.”
His mother’s island
Holmes qualifies through his mother, Lucy, who was born on Mangaia, the southernmost of the 15 Cook Islands. Her parents moved the family to New Zealand for work, but could not afford to take all 12 children, so some stayed behind to be raised by uncles and aunts, nrl.com reported.
“There’s probably 400 or 500 people who live in Mangaia, but when my mum was young there wasn’t many and they used to just live off the land or the sea,” he said. He did not take much interest in that history as a boy. A family wedding in the Cook Islands changed that, and he now goes back almost every year. After the World Cup he is going over to run footy clinics.
Why it took until 2026
He decided after the 2023 season that he would switch. “I broke my leg so that put it on hold, and last year I had shoulder surgery so that put it on hold,” he said. The eligibility rules let a player who has represented Australia move to a nation like the Cook Islands.
He credits Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita, who left New Zealand and Australia for Tonga in 2017. “That changed the international game and a lot of boys have followed them,” he said. “The Aussies and Kiwis got paid a lot more for Tests or if they won the World Cup, so that showed it wasn’t about the cash.”
He made his Cook Islands debut last Sunday in Christchurch, in an 82-16 loss to New Zealand. He still came away proud of the side coached by Karmichael Hunt.
The World Cup record he holds
Holmes played most of his Australian career on the wing. He holds the record for the most tries in a World Cup match, six against Fiji in the 2017 semi-final, a week after scoring five against Samoa. He is two short of Billy Slater’s record of 16 World Cup tries.
The two teams
Paul Ulberg returns on the wing for Esom Ioka, who scored a hat-trick against the Kiwis and then went off injured. Kevin Walters has named Tom Dearden at halfback, with Sam Walker on the bench, and Reece Walsh back at fullback. Bradman Best and Kotoni Staggs are the centres.
Australia are already through to the semi-finals and finish top of Pool A with a win. Kick-off is 8.05pm AEDT on Saturday 31 October (7.05pm in Townsville, 9.05am in the UK). The World Cup table has the standings.
