With the 2025 Rugby League Pacific Championships set to kick off this weekend, I can’t help feeling that familiar buzz of excitement.
Every year this tournament grabs my attention in a way that club footy simply doesn’t. There’s something different about it – something raw, emotional, and deeply human.
I look forward to seeing players represent their culture and nation with such honour. It’s not just another round of rugby league; it’s a showcase of heart.
The sheer passion, intensity, and hard-hitting football make it impossible to look away. When players pull on their national jersey, you can tell they’re playing for more than themselves.
Yes, some games end up one-sided and some results are predictable, but that doesn’t matter. I’m still glued to the screen every single game.
Because when players play for their country, it’s a whole new level of footy. Representing your nation is a particular privilege.
More than skill or fitness, it demands complete commitment. These players throw themselves into the contest as if nothing else matters in that moment.
Every tackle, every run, every prayer and hymn before the game – it’s all done with total conviction.
Sometimes I hear people say it’s “too much” or “too intense.” But they just don’t understand what’s really happening out there.
It can’t be too intense for these players, because what they can give on the field will never fully measure up to what it means to represent their people, their family, and their faith.
The intensity isn’t excessive – it’s fitting. It’s the natural response to something sacred.
That’s what makes this competition so captivating. Beneath the big hits and bold celebrations, there’s something deeply spiritual taking place.
These players carry their families, their communities, and their ancestors with them.
Every tackle is more than a contest – it’s an act of honour, sacrifice, and belonging. That’s why the emotion runs so deep.
There’s something about that level of commitment that points me back to the spiritual life.
Because sometimes people say the same thing about believers – that we take our faith too seriously, that we’re too intense about God.
But the truth is, when you’ve encountered something, or rather someone, worth giving everything for, “too much” doesn’t exist.
Just as Pacific players throw themselves fully into the game, the saints lived their faith with the same wholehearted conviction. They weren’t half-in, half-out; they were all-in.
Would anyone look at St Stephen, St Maximilian Kolbe, or the martyred Apostles and tell them they took their faith too seriously?
Or say to St Maria Goretti, martyred at just 11 years old, or St José Sánchez del Río, martyred at 14, that their zeal was “a bit much”? Of course not. Their intensity was love in its purest form – a love that holds nothing back and sees beyond this life.
The Pacific Championships give us some of the best rugby league you’ll ever see – skill, passion, intensity, hard hits, and fraternity.
But they also point to something beyond the field: a reminder that life with God deserves the same total commitment.
If we can admire players for giving everything for their jersey, how much more should we strive to give everything for Christ? Our efforts, our sacrifices, our devotion – they can never be “too much,” because they will never outweigh what God has already given us.
