Kusitino Savea, aged 19, mentoring the New Caledonia team at the Lindisfarne College Under 15 tournament a fortnight ago. Photo / Paul Taylor
Kusitino Savea, aged 19, mentoring the New Caledonia team at the Lindisfarne College Under 15 tournament a fortnight ago. Photo / Paul Taylor
It's a big chance to take, but teenaged rugby player Kusitino Savea - from Futuna - is taking it with Hawke's Bay, so far making almost every post a winner.
"Tino", as he is known, hopes to one day emulate fellow openside flanker and namesake, All Black Ardie Savea.
Inhis first year out of Lindisfarne College, Tino Savea has been a member of the Hawke's Bay Rugby Academy, played for the Hurricanes Under-20s and the Hawke's Bay Under-19s, and won the Hawke's Bay Premier club Maddison Trophy final with Taradale.
But he recognises they're only the first steps if he's to follow the other Savea, one of the few New Zealand rugby names he was aware of when he first came to New Zealand in a Futuna team for the Lindisfarne Under-15 tournament in 2018.
It was there that he was noticed and offered a scholarship at the school, quickly making it into a Magpies queue of some quality and depth - ahead of him were future Ranfurly Shield holders and Super Rugby loose forwards such as Devan Flanders, Marino Mikaele-Tu'u, Josh Kaifa, and Solomona Funaki.
As it happens, Wallis and Futuna, a French territory and island group of about 16,000 people in the South Pacific - between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji to the southwest, Tonga to the southeast, Samoa to the east, and Tokelau to the northeast - has produced a surprising number of players who have made it in big-time rugby.
Where Savea made the choice to come here, most of the rest went with their French connections to the Northern Hemisphere. At least 13 have played professional rugby in France in the last two decades, and at least nine have played internationally for France. They include Noumea-born lock Sebastien Vahaamihina, who played 46 games for France, scoring a try in his last when the Tricolours were beaten 20-19 by Wales in a 2019 Rugby World Cup quarter-final, and centre Yoram Moefana, born on Futuna and who has made seven appearances for France since 2020.
Kusitino Savea in Premier club rugby action this year for Maddison Trophy winners Taradale. Photo / NZME
Another who ventured north was Laurent Simutoga, a France Under-20 representative now coaching at Lindisfarne.
Tino Savea, as far as he is aware, is not related to Wellington-born Ardie Savea, although teammates and club supporters have tried to make a connection.
And he's not, specifically, after the No 7 jersey for the All Blacks, he says in good English (that he's learnt in New Zealand). Savea hails from a background of French speakers and local dialects, growing up in the villages of Ono (population 524 in the 2018 census) and Kolia (pop. 254), in the Alo district on the southern coast of Futuna, an island of barely 80 square kilometres.
"It took me a couple of months [to learn English]," Savea says, something that highlights he's not just here for the football. He's also a fulltime nursing student.
He's also had to bulk up, from about 95 kilos last year to the 110kg he reckoned he needed.
"I wanted to play Prems, from last year," he says. "I knew what I have to do to get looked at by the Magpies."
It was a good season, till he took a knock to the ribs 60 minutes into the Maddison Trophy final, but he was out just a short time, missing the first of the Under-19 team's four-match representative programme.
Tries were scored by Sam Cavanagh, Hame Lauaki, Nik Patumaka, Bethel Malasia, Gilgal Malasia, Troydyn Bird, and Harry Godfrey, who also kicked two conversions, in a 39-27 win over the Hurricanes Heartland Unions Under-20 selection on Saturday, claiming second place in their Hurricanes region competition.
