'What a way for him to finish': Kiwi teammates' stirring gesture for emotional Kieran Foran after final game

Kieran Foran's New Zealand teammates honoured the retiring legend with a stirring rendition of the Haka in the sheds as he bowed out with victory in the Pacific Championship final on Sunday.

Vision surfaced on Instagram after the Kiwis' 36-14 win over Samoa at CommBank Stadium of Foran's teammates gathering in front of him and breaking into the iconic war cry.

The footage shows a visibly moved Foran nodding his head as he watches, then joining in for the final strains.

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The highly respected playmaker, who's retired at 35, featured in 318 NRL games with the Sea Eagles, Eels, Warriors, Bulldogs and Titans, as well as 34 Test matches for New Zealand.

He won a premiership with Manly in 2011 and a Four Nations title with the Kiwis in 2014.

What the stats and accolades don't show was the uncompromising fashion in which he played, relentlessly attacking the line with his dangerous running game and never shirking in defence.

On many occasions, his body was so badly battered that it was hard to see him lacing up the boots to go again.

In his 17 seasons of first grade he underwent 18 surgeries.

"[I'm] over the moon," Foran told Paul Gallen on Nine after his farewell game.

"I can't believe it. The boys — they just dug so deep. And I knew they would; we've had a really good campaign.

"I wanted to come in here and try and finish on a high. It's been a really tough year obviously up there [at the Titans], but to come in here and play with this bunch of boys and do it for our country, it was just a cherry on top, mate."

Hearts sunk for the retiring great 27 minutes into the contest when he threw a pass that was picked off by Simi Sasagi, who raced 79 metres to score Samoa's second try of the game.

But after falling behind 12-0, the Kiwis piled on six unanswered tries to ensure Foran bowed out a winner.

As expected, New Zealand's No.7 did most of the kicking, putting in 13 kicks for 380 metres.

The Sea Eagles great will return to the northern beaches of Sydney this summer as an assistant coach to Anthony Seibold.

In a tribute from one champion halfback to another, New Zealand coach Stacey Jones said some beautiful words about Foran in his post-game press conference.

"[He's] just a special person," Jones said.

"He's part of the leadership group and he bleeds black. He's a wonderful person to have around the group. He takes a lot of pressure off this guy [captain James Fisher-Harris] as far as leadership goes.

"What a way for him to finish off an outstanding career."

In another indication of just how much passion there is for rugby league in the Pacific Island community, a crowd of 28,084 packed into CommBank Stadium for Sunday's decider and had the joint rocking.

Foran reiterated his belief that the Pacific Championships could one day exceed all else in rugby league.

"The whole Pacific Championships has been phenomenal," Foran said.

"I've said it through the week; I think it can become the pinnacle of our game. I honestly do.

"You can see the crowds that have turned up, the noise, it really is something else, the last two crowds and especially this one today, that was special.

"Credit to the NRL and the organisers for putting it on because the support for the Samoan and the Tongan teams and us Kiwi boys was really special."