Savea returns to Wellington club rugby
All Blacks star Ardie Savea made a low-key, high-scoring reappearance in Wellington rugby yesterday, two days before his official return to Scott Robertson’s first squad of 2024.
Savea, named 2023 World Rugby player of the year as the All Blacks were pipped by the Springboks in the World Cup final, returned to his beloved Oriental-Rongotai club and scored twice in their Swindale Shield match against Wellington at Hataitai Park. It was his first club outing in four years.
Savea’s presence certainly inspired his Ories team as they towelled up the outmatched Wellington side 90-7 to notch their eighth win from 12 matches this season.
“To come down here and play the Axemen, some of the boys I grew up with too, it’s a real honour,” Savea told Stuff.
“It’s nice to come down and see the kids, and eat a sausage after the game. It’s what footy is all about. My lungs after the first 10 minutes, I didn’t know if I could handle it. It’s good though, I just wanted to get some contact in and get the body moving and the lungs going.”
Ories director of rugby Poasa Poasa said on Friday of Savea, who last appeared for the club in 2020: “Since he got back from Japan he’s come and watched a few games with the kids, kicked the ball around, and a lot of the kids in the community gravitate to him so there is a special buzz for this weekend.
“It’s not every day they get to run out with a potential All Black captain and the reigning World Rugby player of the year.
It’s something special for the playing group as well as the coaching group to be involved with his progression as well.”
Savea’s appearance happened a week after All Blacks team-mate Beauden Barrett turned out for Taranaki club Coastal, having also returned from a season in Japan. It was the 123-test veteran’s first match for his club in 14 years.
Savea was absent for the Hurricanes’ Super Rugby Pacific campaign as he took up a one-year deal in Japan with Kobe Kobelco Steelers, coached by Dave Rennie.
He returned to Wellington at the end of the Japan season and remains on a New Zealand Rugby contract for next year.
The Hurricanes expect Savea back in their squad for Super Rugby Pacific in 2025, after the team’s stellar season which saw them finish top of the table before bowing out to the Chiefs in the semifinal.
Savea will be named in the All Blacks squad of 32 on Monday night, to face England in two tests in Dunedin on July 6 and Auckland on July 13.
The 30-year-old loose forward has played 81 tests for the All Blacks since his debut in 2016.