Hame Faiva

Epalahame Faiva (born 9 May 1994) is a New Zealand-born Italian rugby union player who plays as a hooker for Newcastle Red Bulls in Gallagher Premiership.

Early career Born and raised in Auckland, Faiva attended Wesley College in the city and while there played for the Eden Rugby Club before later trying out rugby league. During his time at Wesley College, he also played representative rugby for before shifting south to where he was a member of their academy and also played under-20 rugby.

Several seasons of solid performances at provincial level were rewarded when he was named in the Blues squad ahead of the 2017 Super Rugby season. He played with Benetton until 2021−2022 season.

He recently played for Worcester Warriors in Premiership Rugby but had his contracted terminated along with every other Warriors player on 5 October 2022.

In March 2023 he was named in Hurricanes squad for Round 5 of 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season. He played with Super Rugby franchise until the end of the season.

On 17 November 2023, Faiva was signed by English side Bath with immediate effect on a undisclosed length deal, back in the Premiership Rugby.

International career Faiva was a member of the New Zealand Under-20 sides which competed in the 2013 and 2014 IRB Junior World Championships. He scored 4 tries in 8 appearances as the Kiwis finished in 4th and 3rd place respectively.

On the 14 October 2021, he was selected by Alessandro Troncon to be part of an Italy A 28-man squad for the 2021 end-of-year rugby union internationals.

On the 31 October 2021, he was selected by Kieran Crowley to be part of an Italy 34-man squad for the 2021 end-of-year rugby union internationals. On 20 October 2021 Faiva made his debut for Italy, scoring a try in Italy's 17–10 win over Uruguay.

International tries As of 20 November 2021