Images: Maree Wilkinson
Cheeky and adorable two-year-old twins Kamari and Kaziel are a handful. But if anyone can keep up with these identical balls of energy, it’s their parents, who are two of New Zealand’s top rugby players, Black Fern Dhys Faleafaga and All Blacks Sevens star Tone Ng Shiu.
The young parents are the picture of happiness with their boys, smiling and laughing. Of course, as any parent can attest, the day-to-day realities are very different with toddlers, especially twin boys.
“It’s been crazy,” smiles Tone. “I never used to be a coffee drinker, but I started drinking it as soon as the twins were born.” The couple, who have been together for three years, met through rugby.
“We would see each other around at national tournaments,” recalls Dhys. “We laugh about it now because one year, at a sevens tournament, our tents were right next to each other and now here we are all these years later!”
It wasn’t until they both ended up in Tauranga that they met properly, when Dhys moved up from Wellington. Then a year after they started dating, the pair were shocked to learn they had twins on the way.
“It definitely wasn’t planned,” laughs 23-year-old Dhys.
She found out she was pregnant in Europe, when she was playing with the Black Ferns. The New Zealand national women’s rugby team was playing four test matches and Dhys was concussed in the second game. She discovered she was pregnant right after the third match, when she was concussed a second time.
“I couldn’t play the fourth match after that,” explains Dhys. “I came back home but was really sick. It was so scary because I didn’t know if I was sick from the concussions or the pregnancy.”
Thankfully, it turned out to be the pregnancy, with her sickness lasting right through the first and second trimesters.
“It was so lucky I found out I was pregnant when I did,” reflects Dhys. “I was a few months along and if I’d played that final game having not recovered from two concussions, it could have severely affected the babies.”
Though it was a surprise to discover it was twins, the concept wasn’t totally foreign.
“I have quite a few sets of twins on my side and Tone’s got one set on his side,” says Dhys. “But identical twins aren’t genetically linked, just fraternal, so it was completely by chance.”
Despite the excitement from both families, the pregnancy felt long and difficult for both Dhys and Tone, who is originally from Napier.
“The mood swings were bad – this one had to deal with it,” she laughs, gesturing towards Tone.
But soon Tone had more issues to contend with when he was forced to stop playing rugby due to an ACL injury just a year after the boys were born.
For 29-year-old Tone, who had never suffered an injury before, he quickly realised how much it would affect his professional life and his home life as well. He was bedridden for two months and hasn’t been able to play rugby for the past year.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m useless,’” explains Tone of his return home after the injury. “Dhys was doing everything with the boys and she was trying to get back into rugby herself at the same time. It was a rollercoaster for both of us because we were both at different stages in our careers, but colliding. The timing and the situations we were in, it was all just a recipe for disaster.”
Today, however, the couple look back on that time as a much-needed learning curve.
“Having the boys and both playing in the sevens… The understanding that we have of each other has grown heaps,” says Dhys. “We’re first-time parents on the same career paths, so we’ve had to learn how to help each other out. We’ve come a long way.”
“A long, long, long way,” adds Tone, letting out a relieved sigh.
They agree that Tone’s injury has been a blessing in disguise for the boys, who’ve had their dad at home this past year. “It actually helped big-time,” says Tone. “That year before I injured myself, there were more tournaments than ever. I was always travelling and hardly ever at home. I’d come back for a few weeks, then would have to leave again for ages.”
These days, the couple are both training but attend fewer tournaments. Now on the mend, they both have their sights set on the 2024 Olympics.
“We’re just trying to focus on the Games now,” says Tone. “For me, I’m at that point where it’s like, if I make it, I make it.”
Adds Dhys, “The twins have just settled into daycare, so fingers crossed.”
And as for wedding bells?
“Well, we just bought a house,” says Tone. “And there’s the cost of living…”
“There’s a lot going on!” laughs Dhys.
