Rugby World Cup: Hamilton’s Hame Faiva’s Italian experience

University of Waikato Rugby Club, Hurricanes and former Waikato hooker Hame Faiva, 29, played three matches for Italy at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, grabbing a try against Namibia.

Italy’s World Cup has ended with victories over Uruguay (38-17) and Namibia (52-8) tempered by losses to New Zealand (96-17) and France (60-7).

Faiva came off the bench for the Azzurri against Namibia and New Zealand, before starting in the loss to France where he was replaced in the 61st minute by Marco Manfredi.

“Taking the field for the first time at the World Cup was awesome. It was like a dream come true. Watching it as a kid growing up, then to be part of it was a big milestone for me, for my family and my friends back home,” he says.

“To score in the World Cup was awesome. All credit to the team, [they] got us into the right part of the field and I just got that low position and that leg drive. That was basically all I did.”

He says playing against the All Blacks was an awesome experience.

“It was a tough day for us, we learnt from that. I grew up playing age-grade back in New Zealand. I played with a lot of the boys there and it was really good to catch up with them as well.”

A 2013-2014 New Zealand Under 20 rep, the former Wesley College student first broke onto the professional rugby scene at the age of 19, in Waikato’s July 2013 Ranfurly Shield defence against Horowhenua-Kāpiti.

He went on to play 41 times for Waikato (#1113) before heading overseas after 2017 – also the year in which he made his Blues Super Rugby debut.

Faiva became eligible for Italy on the three-year residency grounds having signed with Italian Pro14 side Benetton from November 2017 onwards.

He made his international debut in November 2021, scoring a try in the 17-10 victory over Uruguay. He now has 10 Azzurri matches to his name.

After playing more than 60 matches for Benetton, he transferred to English premiership team Worcester Warriors in 2022 but had his contract terminated, along with every other Warriors player.

March 2023 saw a return to Super Rugby with the Hurricanes while also bringing up his 50th University match before departing to join the Italian squad.

“To represent Italy is an awesome opportunity. I was there for five years at Benetton and moved on to England but Italy was a big part of my career,” Faiva says.

“Also the coaching staff, Kieran [Crowley] is really good and I learnt a lot about set-piece in Italy with Fabio Ongaro and Marco Bortolami.

“The highlight of the World Cup – the atmosphere has been awesome. All of our games have been packed-out stadiums which is cool. Probably my best memory was playing in front of 60-70,000 people. Having my partner and daughter here to experience that is cool.”

The end of the Rugby World Cup campaign brings former All Black Kieran Crowley’s reign as Azzurri head coach to a close while Faiva’s next club move is yet to be announced.

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