Castleford Tigers are in a relegation dog fight and their last minute transfer dealings have highlighted that with four quota signings coming in over the past fortnight, with Leeds Rhinos’ Blake Austin being the last of those yesterday.
To facilitate that number of moves the Tigers have worked around their current overseas players including loaning former Hull KR prop Albert Vete to Doncaster who are pushing for promotion from League One.
Another two that were released are Mahe Fonua and Bureta Faraimo, the pair having featured together for both Cas and Hull FC, and they’ll now reunite with Vete as Doncaster have pulled off a huge deal to land them both.
The League One club, who currently sit in third place, announced the news via social media with a statement attached on their website.
NEWS | Mahe Fonua and Bureta Faraimo sign for the Dons#COYD https://t.co/anRNljvLpk pic.twitter.com/GF8haAoR8Q
— Doncaster RLFC (@Doncaster_RLFC) August 4, 2023
It read as follows:
“The Dons are delighted to announce the signings of former Super League duo Mahe Fonua and Bureta Faraimo.
“Fonua and Faraimo were released from Betfred Super League side Castleford Tigers in late July, making the experienced pair available for the Dons to snap up.
“Both players have signed and are awaiting visa clearance which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. Fonua is currently back home spending time with his family and will collect his visa upon returning to the UK. Faraimo is currently awaiting residency for the UK, which again is expected to be cleared up in the not too distant future.”
Incredibly that statement confirms that Mahe Fonua is currently already back down under, and will return for the remainder of the season, despite having signed for Australian side Mackay Cutters for 2024 and 2025.
Dons head coach Richard Horne said: “As soon as we became aware of both Fonua and Faraimo’s availability we made contact. The opportunity to bring in such high quality and vastly experienced players is something we can’t turn down and that’s what these two bring to the squad.
“Leading into the playoffs you want options in terms of squad depth and the careers Mahe and Bureta have had in top flight rugby league so far speak for themselves.”
