Dhys Faleafaga

BIOGRAPHY

Black Fern #224

Dhys Faleafaga was a sensation in the all-conquering St Mary’s College First XV that won both the National First XV and Sevens titles in 2016 and 2017. The dynamic Wellington loose forward was a New Zealand Sevens representative two years later and in 2021 was selected for the Black Ferns Northern Tour.

Dhys grew up in Porirua where her parents Tim and Vanessa played over 200 games for Norths. Vanessa was a flanker who represented Manu Sina at the 2002 and 2006 World Cup as well as the Wellington Pulse in netball. Dhys first played rugby at Norths; surprisingly with trepidation.

“I started when I was five but I was scared of the sport to be honest so I started playing netball. I picked it up again when I was 16. When I started at St Mary’s it was ten aside but when we got new coaches the sport started to grow.”

Ories Premier winger Tuga Mativa and his best friend All Black Ardie Savea were a formidable duo.

“Ardie was shy at first standing in the corner with his hoodie on. It took him a while to open up but when he did he was exactly like he is on social media, funny, himself, a clown always singing and dancing but when it was time to coach he was all ears listening to us and then having his say in a constructive way. Tuga and Ardie were dynamite together, brainy, inspiring and fun.”

From the second division in Wellington, St Mary’s won the 2016 Condor Sevens defeating reigning champions Hamilton Girls’ High School 19-17 in the final. The following year they won the National First XV Top Four with Dys playing centre scoring two tries in the semi-final win against Southern Cross Campus (22-17) and repeating the dose from No.8 in the final against Hamilton Girls’ High School (29-12).

“That was a special group of girls. We had a lot of fun with great talent and parents involved. When it was time to go hard, we went hard. My job was to create a sense of belonging and once I did that the girls really flourished,” Mativa said.

Fellow Black Fern Monica Tagoai, sister and Black Ferns Sevens representative Lyric Faleafaga and Wellington netballer Ainsleyana Puleiata were also members of the team.

With newfound confidence Dhys settled quickly at Norths and at the end of 2021 season had scored 43 tries in 22 games for her club. Her largest haul in a match was six against Poneke in 2018, the same year she won the inaugural Dawn Patelesio medal as player of the Tia Paasi Memorial Cup final. Norths beat fierce rivals Oriental Rongotai 20-15 with Dhys scoring a crucial try.

In 2019 her prolific try scoring feats earned her a place in the New Zealand Sevens team where she played three tournaments and scored eight tries. Winning the 2019 Canada Sevens was a highlight, but narrowly missing the 2021 Olympic team was a bitter disappointment.

Dhys bounced back quickly less than two months later, helping Wellington reach the semi-finals of the Farah Palmer Cup. She flourished under the guidance of former Black Fern Aimee Sutorius and former Samoan international Isaac Fe'aunati, who played Jonah Lomu in Clint Eastwood directed movie Invictus.

“It was cool to be coached by Axe because of her legacy in the Black jersey and at Norths. It took us a while to get used to Zac. He was tough but the girls needed that after a disappointing 2020.”

Dhys started at number eight for the Black Ferns in their 100th test against England and played the first-half of the loss to France in Pau a fortnight later.

“I couldn’t believe how hard England came at us. I didn’t go into the game complacent, and I was gutted we lost, but I was shocked at how lippy and aggressive they were. We needed to give it back to them.

“The French always had the ball in play, offloading, running, keeping you guessing and their crowds were unreal. Our captain said ‘when the French are signing, pretend they’re singing for us,’ but they were so loud we couldn’t hear the lineout calls.”

Dhys enjoys both formats of the game and observed.

“New Zealand Sevens was a level of rugby I wish a lot of school girls could experience. Learning about nutrition, mindset and organisational skills was massive for me. I was pretty bad with my eating. The bakeries on Mungavin Avenue are now out of bounds.

“I hope fifteens can emulate the professionalism of the sevens but keep the culture of comradery. In fifteens’ it’s cool you have a large number of girls because you can hang out with your own clique but also hang out with others. In sevens we see each other every day because it’s a fulltime job. There aren’t many new faces.”

Her partner is New Zealand Sevens player and Olympic silver medalist Tone Ng Shiu.

Profile by Adam Julian