‘It’s very spiritual to me’: Why Kieran Foran put off retirement for last hurrah with Kiwis

A few days before the New Zealand Warriors played the Titans on the Gold Coast in August, Kiwis coach Stacey Jones asked Kieran Foran to meet for coffee.

The previous month, Foran had announced his impending retirement from rugby league. But Jones, knowing Melbourne’s Jahrome Hughes was likely to undergo shoulder surgery at the end of the season, needed a playmaker for the Pacific Championships, and wanted to gauge the interest of the 35-year-old.

Foran was not even two sips into his double-shot flat white when he answered in the affirmative.

“Stace basically said, ‘If I need you to play, have you got it in you?’ and I didn’t blink,” Foran says. “He told me how much he enjoyed my presence in camp last year. [He asked] if I was keen to help out again in the same leadership or coaching capacity, or potentially come in this time as a player, and I said, ’100 per cent’.

“Provided I got through the rest of the season [with the Titans] fine, I told him I’d keep ticking the legs over and make sure I was ready to go if called upon.

“Playing for the Kiwis has been such a highlight of my career. To be getting this opportunity at the end of my career, it’s really special.

“The one thing I said to Stace was I wouldn’t come in and just play because the opportunity is there; the only way I was going to do it was if I was completely and utterly immersed and fully committed.

“It was a difficult year for us on the Gold Coast. I won three games in my final year. It’s been really challenging. So to be given this opportunity, and to play in some big matches, which every Test is, it was something I didn’t want to let slide by.

“I love New Zealand. I sound more Aussie than most Australians, but everything inside me is Kiwi. I’m very connected to my homeland; it’s very spiritual to me. I can’t explain it. It’s nice this is how it will finish.”

After 318 NRL games over 17 seasons, topped by the 2011 NRL premiership with Manly, Foran had felt at peace with his decision to call it a day. But he began second-guessing himself this week after realising how good he felt, physically and mentally, training with the Kiwis in Auckland.

Foran could have been a first-class back-up halves option for an NRL club in 2026. Fellow Kiwi Benji Marshall thrived in a similar role for South Sydney in 2021, and found it much easier knowing he was not going to be relied upon to run the show every week.

“I’m feeling as sharp as ever, and this week I started to think, ‘I’m not done yet’,” Foran says. “Every player has doubts about whether they’ve made the call to retire too early. Could I have gone another year chasing that premiership?

“It’s crossed my mind this week that I might still have something left. But I’ve made the call, and I’m sticking to it. I really am. What I am going to do is absolutely juice it and get the wins for the Kiwis, starting Sunday against Samoa.

“I’m undecided about what I do moving forward. Coaching is what I would like to do. I’ll also continue to do work in the mental health space.”

Jones could easily have looked towards the future and selected a young playmaker over Foran, especially with the World Cup on the horizon next year. But New Zealand have a serious halfback shortage. Even the Warriors have had to rely on Australians Tanah Boyd, Luke Metcalf and Jett Cleary to bolster their playmaking stocks.

But the coach’s decision was made easier by the fact Foran had never let his high standards slip, giving everything to a Titans team that only narrowly avoided the wooden spoon in 2025.

“I sat down with Kieran and told him I would have brought him in anyway because I wanted him to be a part of the off-field staff, which he did last year with leadership and a bit of coaching,” Jones says.

“By picking him to play, it means he just has to do a bit more work. We looked at all our options. It’s a bit of a scary place for us because we don’t have that depth in our halves. We don’t have the Junior Kiwis where we can identify guys.

“Even at the Warriors, we’ve had to bring over a few Australians. Maybe we need to recruit those guys and give them citizenship.

“But this is a perfect way for ‘Foz’ to finish up. Why not give him one last farewell in a good environment?”

Foran and his family moved to Australia when he was in primary school, but he has never forgotten his Kiwi roots.

One of his fondest childhood memories was being woken up by his parents at 2am to watch the All Blacks play the Springboks in South Africa.

Sea Eagles forward Anthony Watmough, who Foran still regards as the toughest man he ever played alongside, used to urge him to commit to NSW and Australia, given he had worn the sky blue at under-17s level and played Australian Schoolboys.

“You’re not even a real Kiwi,” Watmough would chide Foran. “When are you going to play Origin, you bludger?”

Foran will wear the No.7 jersey alongside Newcastle’s new $14 million man Dylan Brown for Sunday’s clash with Samoa, who will have Jarome Luai and Blaize Talagi in the halves. The match will also mark Payne Haas’ debut for Samoa.

Talagi was just four years old when Foran made his NRL debut. He might get to watch the ageing warrior play a few more games yet.