Sefanaia Naivalu

Sefanaia Naivalu
Personal information
Full nameSefanaia Naivalu
NicknameSefa
Born7 January 1992
Levuka, Fiji
Height1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight94 kg (14 st 11 lb)
Club information
Playing positionCentre
Current clubRebels
Amateur team(s)
YearsTeam
−2013Ovalau Rugby Club()
2014−Box Hill Broncos()
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Pts)
2014−Melbourne Rising5(25)
2015–Rebels8(10)
* Senior club appearances and points correct as of 18 April 2015.

† Appearances (Points).

‡ Representative team caps and points correct as of 10 December 2014.

Sefanaia Naivalu (born 7 January 1992) is a Fijian rugby union player who currently plays as a centre for the Melbourne Rebels in the international Super Rugby competition.[1][2] He also represented Melbourne Rising in the inaugural National Rugby Championship.[3]

Career

Naivalu started out his rugby career with the Ovalau Rugby Club in his native Fiji before moving to Australia at the beginning of 2014 with the Rugby Plus Program. He joined the Box Hill Broncos who play in the local Dewar Shield in Victoria and made an immediate impact by becoming the leading try and point scorer in the competition which in turn saw his side reach the tournament's Grand Final.[1][2]

These performance brought him to the attention of the newly formed Melbourne Rising who competed in the first ever National Rugby Championship in 2014. 5 tries in 5 appearances at the beginning of the season[4] were enough to convince local Super Rugby franchise the Melbourne Rebels of his worth and he made history by becoming the first Rebel ever to be signed directly from a Dewar Shield side.[2]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Sefanaia Naivalu Melbourne Rebels Player Profile". Rebels Rugby. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Rebels make history signing Box Hill speedster Sefanaia Naivalu". Rebels Rugby. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  3. "Sefanaia Naivalu Melbourne Rising Player Profile". Melbourne Rising Rugby. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  4. "Sefanaia Naivalu itsrugby Player Statistics". itsrugby. Retrieved 10 December 2014.