KEY POINTS:
Sonny Fai's girlfriend has spoken of the pain of being unable to do anything to save him when he was caught in a rip yesterday.
"I was angry, I wanted to run in there and get him myself," Jenna Frost told reporters at Bethells Beach, west Auckland, where the rising rugby league star is presumed to have drowned late yesterday.
Ms Frost said Fai, 20, had joined her and some of his family members in the surf after going for a run ahead of the New Zealand Warriors' first scheduled training session today.
Some of the group had got into difficulties in the heavy surf and Fai had seen that his younger brother was in trouble.
"Sonny was just going to get his little brother who was in the rip, then they both ended up in the rip," Ms Frost said.
"Sonny told his brother to let go of his hand and he just did that and came back to shore and Sonny got stuck in the rip."
Fai's older sister, Lalelei, said Fai had swum out to their younger brother and a cousin, after the others had reached the safety of the shore.
"I have a younger brother and a younger cousin that are a bit too weak, they couldn't swim that hard so some of the bigger boys and Sonny jumped in to save them," Lalelei Fai said.
"I heard that they were all together, holding hands, but then somehow my younger brother drifted away from them and Sonny went back to get him."
Family always came first with Fai, she said.
Ms Frost said her boyfriend always put other people first, Ms Frost said.
"He's a really good guy, he has a good kind heart."
- NZPA