An Ōtara teacher wrote rugby league books to get kids reading

A former Ōtara teacher is using the Rugby League World Cup as a reason for Pacific children to open a book. RNZ reported on October 31, 2026, that David Riley, who taught at Tangaroa College, has released Rugby League All Stars, with books on players including Brian To'o, Jason Taumalolo, and Isaiah Katoa, and on the Samoan and Tongan national teams.

Riley told RNZ he grew up playing for the Manukau Magpies because his father is Australian. The book idea came later, at Eden Park, when he watched Tongan fans, including children in red, chant through the sipi tau at a Pacific Championships game against the Kiwis. He said the words, the flags, and the noise were already a kind of literacy, and that libraries have been asking for writing Pacific young people will actually pick up. He has made earlier series on Pasifika culture, rugby union, and professional wrestling.

Librarians have been the ones passing the response back. One told him three boys sneaked into the library before she arrived on a Monday morning so they could take the books out before their friends. With permission from Tonga Rugby League and Samoan Rugby League, he is working on books about the Siva Tau and the Sipi Tau, the challenge dances the teams perform, and on how children might carry that spirit into school as well as a match. The last two books in the current set, on Kiwis captain James Fisher-Harris and fullback Kalyn Ponga, are due sometime in November. RNZ's account is about those books and that library rush. It does not measure a change in reading scores.