David Havili

BIOGRAPHY

All Black #1161

The son of former Nelson Bays rugby representative Bill Havili, David was born in the town of Nelson on New Zealand's South Island, but raised in nearby Motueka. He initially attended Motueka High School in his hometown, but later went to Nelson College, where he was a member of their 1st XV rugby team. After graduating high school he began working as a builder's apprentice while playing local club rugby for Nelson. During this time, he made his way through Tasman's youth structures and also being a member of the Crusaders Knights Development team.

Havili made the Tasman Makos squad for the first time in 2014, and burst onto the scene with 4 tries in 10 appearances for the men from Nelson as they reached the final of the ITM Cup Premiership before going down 36-32 to Taranaki. He played all 11 of the Makos games in their run to the semi-finals in 2015, netting 31 points in the process. Tasman were again losing finalists in 2016 with Havili playing a key role with 2 tries in 10 games.

As a result of his impressive displays in his debut season at provincial level, Havili was named as a member of the Crusaders wider training group for the 2015 Super Rugby season. Somewhat surprisingly, he featured 11 times in his first season in Christchurch and helped himself to 2 tries which saw him promoted to the full squad for 2016. He made 14 appearances in 2016 and contributed 2 tries as the Crusaders reached the competition's quarter-finals before going down 42-25 to the Lions in Johannesburg. In October 2016, it was announced that he had signed a new 3-year deal which would see him stay with the Crusaders through to the end of the 2019 season.

In the 2017 Super Rugby season, Havili was a key member of the Crusaders squad that lost only one match on the way to their eighth Super Rugby title. Indeed Havili was one of the stand-out performers, not only displacing established All Black Israel Dagg from the full-back position (Dagg played most matches on the right wing) but was also voted the Crusaders' 'Player of the Year' for 2017.

Havili was a member of the New Zealand Under 20 side that finished 3rd in the 2014 IRB Junior World Championship in his home country. He was not named in the initial squad, but was later called up to replace the injured Simon Hickey.

Havili was called up to the All Blacks for the 2017 Rugby Championship squad after shoulder surgery ruled out Hurricanes back Jordie Barrett for the rest of the year.

Havili made his All Blacks debut against the Pumas on October 1st 2017 at Estadio Jose Amalfitani, Buenos Aires scoring his first try on debut at the 81st minute.