Former rugby league star Manu Vatuvei [Source: Fox Sports]

Former rugby league star Manu Vatuvei has been sentenced to three years and seven months in jail for importing methamphetamine.

Vatuvei also featured for Mate Ma’a Tonga against the Fiji Bati in 2017 during the Pacific Test triple header.

His brother Lopini Mafi was also sentenced to seven years and two months behind bars for his involvement as the New Zealand head of the “unsophisticated” drug ring.

According to stuff.co, the brothers appeared at south Auckland’s Manukau District Court today where Judge Jonathan Moses said the pair had contributed to the methamphetamine problem in New Zealand and their actions needed to be denounced.

Vatuvei who was nicknamed ‘The Beast’ previously played for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL and for the Salford Red Devils in the Super League.

He was a member of the New Zealand national team that won the 2008 World Cup.

The 36-year-old became the Warriors’ top try scorer, and the first player in NRL history to score at least 10 tries in 10 consecutive seasons.