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ArchivesSouth Pacific, anyone?
I've been puzzled throughout the rugby season about a brilliant winger who now represents New Zealand but started life Fijian, I think. Excellent player; his surname is Rokocoko, and the c in the middle is pronounced th: Rokothoko.
Any ideas, factual preferably, about how this came about? Was there a Spanish colonising or missionary presence on Fiji? Or, am I perhaps mishearing the NZ commentators, all explayers with, presumably, missing teeth?
And, while we're there and on the topic: in the previous batch of top All Blacks there was Zinzan Brooke, whose brother Robin could not have had a name less like the strange and tangy Zinzan if he'd practised for a decade. One explanation is that it was their dear old granny's surname - but where Grandma got it from is unclear to me as well. Any ideas, anyone?
Any ideas, factual preferably, about how this came about? Was there a Spanish colonising or missionary presence on Fiji? Or, am I perhaps mishearing the NZ commentators, all explayers with, presumably, missing teeth?
And, while we're there and on the topic: in the previous batch of top All Blacks there was Zinzan Brooke, whose brother Robin could not have had a name less like the strange and tangy Zinzan if he'd practised for a decade. One explanation is that it was their dear old granny's surname - but where Grandma got it from is unclear to me as well. Any ideas, anyone?
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