According to family legend, Keni Fisilau was so excited to make a rugby player of his first-born son that as soon as baby Gregory was mobile, he was made to crawl up and down the stairs. Dr Spock never included a section on hill sprints in his famous parenting manuals but then again, Tongan fathers tend not to favour a softly, softly approach to rearing kids.
And so, Greg Fisilau’s training regime began at the tenderest age. Today, the 22-year-old’s thrusting runs, immense power and eye-catching footwork have driven him to the centre of English rugby discourse – and perhaps the brink of a first cap – at number eight for the resurgent Exeter Chiefs.
Fisilau, clearly, has always been steeped in the game. His parents left Tonga for England nearly 25 years ago, seeking a brighter future for their children. Keni, a punchy centre, played over 200 matches for Plymouth Albion and represented his country. The game is in his blood and the path for his boy was almost preordained.
Graft was demanded. Desire baked into his DNA. Slacking unacceptable. Tough love, you might call it. A teenage Fisilau might have chosen another term.
“My dad made me walk home from a running session once,” he remembers. “I genuinely could not finish the rep. I was blowing out my arse. I was giving him a bit of lip to be fair – I’ll give him that.
“He said ‘right, that’s enough’, drove off and made me run home. It was about 20 minutes back to the house.
“Some time after that, we went to the doctor and found out I had asthma. He feels terrible about it now. At the time, it was savage.”
Fisilau was not, by his own admission, the easiest child to parent. His elder sisters, Lisia and Malieta, tried their best to keep him in line. Gradually he became a role model for his younger brothers David, now a member of the Chiefs academy, and ‘MB’, already tearing up trees in the English school scene.
I wish I had asked them more questions and tried to get more knowledge off them when I had the chance because I don’t think I did that enough.
MB, by the way, stands for Makobilly. Keni grew up with the Vunipola boys’ father, Fe’ao. The youngest Fisilau was named in honour of the close family friends and rugby icons.
“I didn’t realise how big they were in the rugby world until I got a bit older,” Fisilau says. “I wish I had asked them more questions and tried to get more knowledge off them when I had the chance because I don’t think I did that enough. The fact they have come from a similar upbringing and gone to the places they have is more than enough inspiration for me to take.”
Initially, Fisilau was picked up by Wasps and placed in enormous mansion-like accommodation. Manny Feyi-Waboso was a housemate. So were Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, wrecking ball in the Sale midfield, and Olly Hartley, now making waves at Saracens. When the club went bust in 2022, Exeter offered Fisilau a lifeline. Other academy friends were not so lucky.
“A lot of the lads didn’t really get picked up,” Fisilau says. “It was one of the hardest things to experience. The first thing was how upset I was. It was hard to get to grips with at 18, 19 years old.
Greg Fisilau | @ExeterChiefs 🪓 pic.twitter.com/f5VGxI45Ib
— PREM Rugby (@premrugby) December 30, 2025
“I’d done all the age-group stuff with Wasps, gone through the academy, and then got lucky enough to get a contract. I spent two years there. There were 11 or 12 of us living in the digs. We’d do a big clean up altogether and within 10 minutes it was back to how it was before. Mental but so much fun. If I could do that all again I 100% would.”
Exeter may have given Fisilau a crack, but how their faith has been repaid. He broke into the first team just after his 20th birthday, during the mass reset around the 2023 World Cup. He already had England U20 honours, has played and scored routinely for England A, and was part of wider England training squads last season before an ill-timed shoulder injury scuppered any prospect of a debut in the Americas.
Fisilau used that time to layer on more muscle, swelling from 106kg to 111kg. He is not quite as prodigiously sized as Tom Willis, but his exceptional form has placed him among the contenders to replace the Bordeaux-bound juggernaut. Fisilau is third for carries in this season’s Prem and averages close to 4m per run. He is fourth for post-contact metres and fifth for dominant tackles. In his past three league matches, he has made 40 carries, 50 tackles, beaten 14 defenders and scored four tries.
Sam Warburton remembers first clapping eyes on Fisilau. “He’s got it,” the great man thought.
“He’s got the physicality, the phenotype – big, powerful,” Warburton said on TNT Sports before Fisilau’s player-of-the-match performance against Leicester last month.
Against big men, he makes light work of it. His ball-carrying ability and offloading is exceptional. He is going to keep getting better and better and better.
“He’s stepping up in the big moments. His work off the ball has been exceptional. He gets the first ruck clean-out a lot and is very aggressive when he does it. Against big men, he makes light work of it. His ball-carrying ability and offloading is exceptional. He is going to keep getting better and better and better.”
Warburton also highlighted the compelling blend in the Chiefs back-row. Champion judoka Ethan Roots brings the pugilism. Tom Hooper, the 120kg Wallaby, is a brute with the ball or stealing it. Fisilau’s explosive carries are his calling card. These complimentary skillsets are reminiscent of the back-rows which propelled Exeter up the leagues and ultimately, to the summit of Europe, with Dom Armand, Dave Ewers and Sam Simmonds to the forefront.
“It’s important for us to understand why we work together so well and who is better at what job,” Fisilau says. “Rootsy would be in a lot of the five-man lineouts because he’s a better lineout option than me and Hoops. Hoops is a very good ball-carrier and defensively one of the better jackalers so me and Rootsy will try and make those chop tackles to open up the opportunities.
“I try to have carrying as my superstrength. As an eight, you’ve got to be leading the gainline and the stats around your carries have to be really good. I try to be as dominant as I can, and have as many involvements as I can. Good involvements, not just trying to rack up tackles I’m falling off.”
Exeter hadn’t won a league match when the bells rang in 2025. They set all kinds of heinous records last season. Attendances dwindled. Owner Tony Rowe read the riot act. Sacred cows were slaughtered and long-standing members of the coaching team cut loose. Rob Baxter and his players put their environment under the microscope with uncomfortable but imperative scrutiny.
“We had to take a step back, take a look at ourselves and have a deep think about why our season went the way it did,” Fisilau says. “There were a lot of conversations behind closed doors to fix certain things but the main change was attitude around the club and around training.
“We spoke about how the standards we were accepting in training were not good enough. We didn’t realise at the time what we were allowing ourselves to do in training wasn’t good enough or allowing us to perform at our best on the weekend. The lads had a really tough pre-season was well which built the fundamentals and gave us a strong platform to build on.
Obviously, Steve is probably looking for an eight who gets over the gain line and is a big ball-carrier so I need to do that as best I can.
“Skill errors were definitely one thing, habits around breakdown, catch-pass, our lineout drills probably weren’t good enough. Some small details which all add up to get what we got.”
The upshot for Exeter, a terrific first half of the campaign. With the aid of some clever recruitment and a refreshed game model, the Chiefs sit third in the league playing some wonderful stuff. For Fisilau, an individual beacon in a collective success story, a call-up to England’s alignment camp last Monday. The message was clear: Steve Borthwick is watching.
“I was really grateful for the opportunity and to know I am potentially in the mix, it’s just added an extra bit of motivation for me to try and play well.
“I didn’t manage to catch Steve one on one but he texted me to tell me to keep doing what I’m doing. Obviously, he is probably looking for an eight who gets over the gain line and is a big ball-carrier so I need to do that as best I can.”
Whether he realised or not, Fisilau has been preparing for these days – quite literally – since he could crawl. Should his moment arrive as the Six Nations dawns, there will be one Tongan in the far Southwest with a smile as broad as the Plym.
“It would mean absolutely everything to play for England,” Fisilau says. “It’s something my dad has spoken about a lot, since I was a young kid. One of the main reasons my parents made the move to England was to give us the opportunities you weren’t going to get in Tonga. Playing for England is one of the biggest opportunities you can have in rugby.
“My old man refuses to admit I’m better than him until I’ve played for England. To be able to do that, fulfil me and my family’s dreams, would be amazing.”
An excellent article that highlights - not only Greg Fisilau's potential .. but the alchemy of Exeter Chief's back row. I’m a big advocate of the ‘Fisilau and Roots for England’ movement!