{"id":570443,"date":"2025-11-14T19:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/570443\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T19:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:10:17","slug":"toa-mataafa-york-knights-full-back-signs-new-deal-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/570443\/","title":{"rendered":"Toa Mata&#8217;afa: York Knights full-back signs new deal for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">York Knights full-back Toa Mata&#8217;afa has signed a new deal to remain with the newly promoted Super League club.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 28-year-old joined the club for 2025, having spent two seasons in France with Baroudeur de Pia and later FC Lezignan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He made 19 appearances for the Knights in 2025 and scored 12 tries, helping them win the 1895 Cup and reach the Championship Grand Final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m really excited to continue my journey with the York Knights and step up into the Super League,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yorkrlfc.com\/post\/mata-afa-signs-new-deal\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mata&#8217;afa said., external<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a great opportunity to keep developing and help the team build on the achievements this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prior to his move to the northern hemisphere, Mata&#8217;afa played for North Sydney Bears in the NSW Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;For me, he&#8217;s a player whose ceiling limit could be anywhere. He&#8217;s got a really cool head on him, some great leadership ability, great skill and athleticism,&#8221; Knights head coach Mark Applegarth said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The best part about Toa is I think we&#8217;ve barely scratched the surface with him yet and I&#8217;m really looking forward to working with him again.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"York Knights full-back Toa Mata&#8217;afa has signed a new deal to remain with the newly promoted Super League&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-570443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115549636157153860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}