The image is frozen in Penina Nacua’s mind: a father, her husband, teaching their son Puka about football inside a truck. But then young Puka would lose his father to diabetes in 2012.

That quickly changed when Penina stunned the Queensland Reds at Ballymore to lead 7-5 with just five minutes to play, eventually falling in a 17-7 thriller against last year’s grand finalists.