LONG READ Mosese Bason: 'We stayed in a garage for a year and walked to school but the hard work is paying off'

Mosese Bason tells a story of love, grit and sacrifice; the story which shaped him as a man and a teenage father, and propelled him to where he stands now as an athlete, one game from the ultimate prize in age-grade rugby.

Bason was not yet a toddler when his parents left Tonga for New Zealand in 2007. Stephen and Eseta Bason had $NZ70 (£31) to their name and three children under the age of two. It was a back-breaking, sense-scrambling fight against the odds but the couple resolved to make it work. They fetched up in Palmerston North and did whatever they could to put money in their pockets and food on the table.

“When I think deeply into it, I get emotional,” Bason says, sitting outside New Zealand U20s’ Verona hotel. “We stayed in a garage for a year. My mum wasn’t working and my dad was always running to work. Then my neighbours had a garage sale and my dad bought a pink bike from them to get to work.

“He wasn’t really being paid much, then he applied for a job at a juvenile detention centre and started moving up the ranks.”

Vernon, the eldest Bason child, skippered last year’s Junior All Blacks, a leadership mantle taken on by Mosese, their barnstorming number eight and vice-captain. Sister Aufa, still just 18, has lain waste to Super Rugby Aupiki this year having swiftly decided netball was much too soft for her combative talents. Five more children have since been joined the clan but in those early days, in the garage, Mosese remembers the first three’s stark reality.

“My parents were constantly saving,” he says. “By the time my elder brother was seven, both my parents were working and he would look after us. We would make our own lunches and walk to school. We were taught at a young age how to look after yourself. It comes back to my parents’ hard work and giving us the best opportunity in life.

At the time, packing up his sandwiches and traipsing up to an hour to school, Bason never realised this wasn’t the standard routine for a six-year-old boy.

We’d feed the pigs every morning except Saturday, when we’d go play rugby, then come home and do our work on the farm. It didn’t matter how far we’d travelled.

“I know now it’s not normal for kids to be doing that. We thought it was normal, we thought that was just life. I was happy as a little kid.

“I’d get hand-me-down clothes or clothes from second-hand stores, and when I hit 13, that’s when me and Mum would go shopping at bigger malls.

“The big motivation for me is, I hope to one day crack footie and pay back my parents for all they’ve done and sacrificed for all my siblings.”

Stephen Bason was a country boy at heart. He’d been close to a professional contract coming out of a scholarship at Rotorua Boys High when a car crash wrecked his knee and his dreams. The Bason children each harbour a deep yearning to succeed in rugby for him. “Our goal is to finish what my dad couldn’t achieve,” Mosese says.

When Stephen and Eseta had finally saved up enough, they took their family away from the urban life. They moved into a lifestyle block – a plot of land somewhere between a purely residential property and a full-blown commercial farm – and started a piggery. For the kids, work ethic was instilled early and often. After last year’s World Championship, the Basons returned from South Africa and spent their week off helping Eseta, who manages a free-range egg farm, to earn a few extra bucks.

“My dad wanted us to go to the farm life, and teach us what hard work is all about,” Bason says. “He always said, ‘this is a real job’.

“We’d feed the pigs every morning except Saturday, when we’d go play rugby, then come home and do our work on the farm. That went right through until I made the first XV at school, it didn’t matter how late we came home or how far we’d have to travel, we’d still get back and work and feed the stock.”

Bason draws heavily on the experiences of his parents; they are a source of pride and motivation, and also a towering example in placing family first. This is all the more poignant since Bason himself became a father only three months ago, aged 19. He and partner Kaylah welcomed their daughter, Leila, in early April.

Far from being stupefied by such life-altering news, Bason says he was beside himself with excitement.

We’d feed the pigs every morning except Saturday, when we’d go play rugby, then come home and do our work on the farm.

“The only thing I was nervous about was telling my parents; I just didn’t know how they would take it. My mum was constantly on my back telling me to do more, work more, always keeping me on my toes. I had a sit-down with my dad and had that real man-to-man talk. He said, ‘We are always going to make sacrifices as fathers, but ultimately it comes down to your choice – what is the best choice for your little family? You have more to work for now, so use that to fuel you.’”

Bason is one of two dads in the New Zealand squad and the coaches are particularly attuned to their body language and emotional needs. Back home, the jolt of parenthood has been softened by such large, supportive and faith-driven families. The couple are saving up for a place of their own, but for now, split their time between the Bason’s spot in Marton and, during the off-season, Kaylah’s family home in Hamilton.

Leila arrived just as Bason began a hectic block of rugby and travel. He was in South Africa for the Rugby Championship in May before flying to Italy in mid-June. He has spent much of his daughter’s early days on the road, in hotel rooms.

“As she is developing and getting older, I’m not there to experience it. Most of the time it’s on the phone, Kaylah will call me and tell me ‘she’s starting to do this now’. It’s sad I can’t be there but she knows I’m here working, trying to do the best I can so I can provide better for both of them. She understands that. She’s happy with me doing my thing, not only to live my dream but to work as hard as I can for them.”

 

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A post shared by Mosese Havea Jnr Bason (@mogeeks_)

Bason is alive to the opportunities the game could offer his fledgling brood. Like Vernon, he’s already played NPC with Manawatu and longs to make the step up to Super Rugby. There may also be tantalising routes overseas.

Stephen’s late father was a Scottish architect who moved to New Zealand, then Tonga, for work. He met Bason’s grandmother and settled on Vava’u, the beautiful island group cast far to the north of the main Tongan archipelago. Scottish Rugby, famously thorough and forthcoming in its quest for eligible talent, will be well aware of the Basons’ progress.

“One day I would love to play international level, and I just leave it as international level because I don’t know where I could end up,” he says. “I’d love to play Super Rugby. I’d love to come over to Europe, especially to get to know a bit more of my Scottish heritage.

“It would be good for me to understand my Scottish side. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind, if I’ve ever thought about playing for Scotland one day, not just to represent my dad but my granddad, because by the sounds of it he was a really big rugby fan. New Zealand is where the journey started for me, but if we dig deeper into my family, it varies.

“In my mind, I have everything open. I would like to push for the black jersey, but I can always push to go elsewhere if I get to that level. I’ve got an agent, so I’m seeing what can work, not only for myself, but for my little family as well.”

I’d back our skillset 100% over theirs, I know our big boys’ skillsets on the ball and around the pitch are second to none.

It’s hard to picture a more turbulent year; a baby, a crack at the NPC, thousands of air miles, an agent busying himself in the background and now, on Saturday evening, a shot at the championship title. Standing between New Zealand and their first U20 crown in eight years are South Africa, a team who have obliterated all comers and built a snowball of hype with their galloping loose forwards and dazzling backline. Their scrum-half, Haashim Pead, is the tournament’s top try-scorer and has already been compared to Antoine Dupont. It’s the final everyone is desperate to see between two of the greatest rugby nations and fiercest of rivals.

“We know they have a big pack,” Bason says. “If we can match their physicality and shut down their big players, it can allow us to express how we play. I’d back our skillset 100% over theirs, I know our big boys’ skillsets on the ball and around the pitch are second to none. It comes down to our accuracy and being brutal in and around the rucks.

“We know how dangerous their outside backs are in open play so we will try our best to limit them, cut off their space, and how connected we are in our defence will be important. We compare our defence from the Rugby Championship, it would be three phases or fewer and teams would score on us. That’s been a work-on heading into the World Cup.

“Here, most of our team runs have been defence. It’s shown in our games, like when we were down to 13 players against France in the semi-final, how deep can we dig for each other? That’s our theme: the battalion, we’re like soldiers out there, how brutal can we be towards these other nations?”

An unreal no-look pass to set up the lead extending try 🤯#WorldRugbyU20s pic.twitter.com/1PuYMgdO96

— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) July 16, 2025

Stephen and Eseta have spent the past three weeks in Verona, staying just around the corner from the team hotel. Mosese has used his NPC earnings to help pay for flights and accommodation. He gave his dad a haircut on Thursday after training and spent Friday afternoon shopping with his mum. It is hard to fathom how far they’ve all come from the garage and the pink bike and the long walks to school. What would it feel like to raise the trophy with the parents who have given every ounce themselves for this moment watching from the stands?

“These are the times I live to see,” Bason says. “The hard work paid off through myself and my family and friends who have helped pave the path to where I am now. I’d be speechless.

“If we do win, I’d probably go home, wear the medal for a week straight, shower in it, go see my family wearing it, and then get it framed up with my jersey. We’ve got a few tops framed, our high school first XV tops, my U20s top from last year, my first NPC top. I always frame it and leave it at home with my parents and siblings so they can see all the teams we’ve made and remember the history.

“When I get to do something I dreamed of as a kid, [my childhood] always plays on my mind, I remember going through all the hard work when I was little. It’s slowly paying off.”