Ardie Savea: from his brother's under-10s to World Player of the Year and All Blacks captain

Ardie Savea was about five when he started turning out for his big brother's under-10 side in Wellington, tackling boys three or four years older than him for half an hour at a time. "I knew he was going to be something special," Julian Savea told the NZ Herald years later. The little brother became an All Black in 2016, the World Rugby Player of the Year in 2023, a Test centurion in 2025 and All Blacks captain in 2026. On RUGBE's records his 35 Test tries are the most scored by any All Blacks forward, and his 112 Tests put him level with Dan Carter as the ninth most-capped All Black.

Where he comes from

Ardie Suemalo Savea was born in Wellington on 14 October 1993. His family's roots are in the Samoan villages of Siumu, Luatuanu'u and Faleasiu Uta, and rugby ran through the household. His father played second five-eighth for the Oriental Rongotai premier side in the 1990s and his mother played premier netball in Wellington, according to a 2013 profile by Adam Julian for Sky Sport. Then there was Julian, four years older, who would score 46 tries in 54 Tests on the wing.

The brothers were close, and competitive. Julian used to tell him he was "annoying" for following him everywhere, Ardie said in 2013, and their games on their knees indoors "usually ended in tears". Getting to rugby was not always simple. In 2023 he recalled that the family had no car, so on the days when games were out in Porirua or the Hutt they relied on family and friends for rides.

The club was never in doubt. "My family has always been associated with Ories," he said of Oriental Rongotai, the club he still represents.

Rongotai College

His childhood hero was Ma'a Nonu, and he followed Nonu, and Julian, to Rongotai College. He made the First XV in Year 10 and played more than 50 games for it over four seasons, according to the Herald. By nature he was an openside flanker, but in his final year, 2011, Rongotai were short of backs and he spent most of the season at centre. "I like running with the ball, that's my favourite part of the game," he explained. His favourite school match was a 28-14 win over St Patrick's College, Wellington, in 2011, Rongotai's first win in that traditional fixture since 2008.

That year he was head boy and First XV captain, and he captained New Zealand Schools, winning the Golden Boot as the best player in the Test against Australia. He also found time to appear in a school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Reuters reported, and to be in the gym three times a week.

Ories, sevens and a Wellington debut

Straight out of school, in 2012, he made his mark in Wellington club rugby. Oriental Rongotai reached the Jubilee Cup final, with Savea scoring seven tries in ten games at flanker and on the wing, and he shared the Billy Wallace Trophy as the competition's best and fairest with Wainuiomata's Shahn Eru, despite playing seven fewer games.

He also played on the World Sevens Series, scoring against England for New Zealand at the Glasgow Sevens in May 2012, and in June he played his first game for the Hurricanes, a mid-season match against the Reds outside Super Rugby, in which he came on at half-time on the wing and scored with his first touch. Later that year he made his debut for Wellington at 18 and scored seven tries in the ITM Cup, the most by any forward and the second most overall. The only worry was his size. At 97kg he was told to bulk up for Super Rugby.

The Hurricanes and the under 20s

After missing the start of the 2013 season through suspension, Savea made his Super Rugby debut at openside against the Waratahs in Wellington in April 2013, aged 19. That winter he captained New Zealand Under 20 at the Junior World Championship in France. He scored in the first minute of a 59-6 win over Fiji, but England beat his side 33-21 in the semi-final and South Africa won the third-place play-off.

In November Steve Hansen took him to Europe with the All Blacks as a non-playing apprentice, alongside Julian. "He was never going to be selected and he knew that from the beginning," Hansen said later. The idea was to show him the life early. Strength and conditioning coach Nic Gill took him in hand on that trip, and by 2016 he had gone from barely 90kg to close to 100kg without losing the speed that had once timed him at 11.3 seconds for 100 metres.

He became a Hurricanes regular in 2015 but missed the final, which the Hurricanes lost, through injury. That year he also took over the Wellington captaincy when Brad Shields was hurt and led the province to the Championship final, lost 26-25 to Hawke's Bay. Twelve months later he was there for the Hurricanes' first title, starting at openside in the 20-3 win over the Lions of Johannesburg in Wellington on 6 August 2016, with Julian coming off the bench.

The All Blacks

Savea had been earmarked for the Rio Olympics sevens team, playing the Wellington and Sydney tournaments in early 2016, but in April he withdrew from Olympic selection to concentrate on fifteens. Two months later he was an All Black. He replaced Sam Cane off the bench against Wales at Eden Park on 11 June 2016, a 39-21 win, and a week later in Wellington, again off the bench, scored a 40-metre try in a 36-22 win. Almost 36,000 people chanted his name. "He might be Wellington's favourite son," said his Hurricanes captain Dane Coles.

His first Test start came against South Africa in Christchurch on 17 September 2016. Ardie and Julian both scored in the 41-13 win, and on RUGBE's records they were the first brothers to score tries in the same Test for the All Blacks. They did it again against Samoa in 2017, when Ardie started at No 8 and scored twice in a 78-0 win.

For two seasons he was mostly the impact man. He played 12 Tests in 2016, ten of them from the bench, and came off the bench in all three Tests of the drawn 2017 series against the British and Irish Lions. In Pretoria in October 2018 he came on early for the injured Cane and scored the late try that Richie Mo'unga converted to win the Test 32-30. With Cane out with a broken neck, he started four Tests on the 2018 northern tour, against Australia in Yokohama, England, Ireland and Italy.

Goggles and a World Cup

In 2019 he started eight of the All Blacks' ten Tests, mostly at blindside. Before the World Cup match against Canada in Oita he revealed that the vision in his left eye had been deteriorating for a couple of years. "Everything's kind of blurry," he told 1News, and he became the first player to wear protective goggles at a Rugby World Cup, which Julian greeted on Twitter as "3D glasses making a comeback". In the semi-final against England in Yokohama he scored the All Blacks' only try, but they lost 19-7, and injury kept him out of the bronze final.

He was nominated for World Rugby Player of the Year, and at the 2019 New Zealand Rugby Awards he won Super Rugby Player of the Year, the first All Blacks Player of the Year award and the Kelvin R Tremain Memorial trophy as New Zealand's player of the year. He could not collect them in person: he had knee surgery that day. In February 2020, still sidelined, he told a podcast that he "100%" wanted to try rugby league one day, naming the Storm and the Roosters. He stayed in union.

Captain

In 2021 he succeeded Dane Coles and TJ Perenara as Hurricanes captain, leading the team for the first time in his 100th game for the club. Later that year, with Cane injured and Sam Whitelock and Aaron Smith on paternity leave, Ian Foster named him All Blacks captain for the Rugby Championship. He led the side for the first time in Perth on 5 September 2021, a 38-21 win, then against Argentina in Brisbane, in the 100th Test between New Zealand and South Africa, a 19-17 win in Townsville, and in the 31-29 loss to the Springboks on the Gold Coast a week later. The All Blacks won the Rugby Championship, and Savea was named All Blacks Player of the Year for 2021 and again for 2022.

The 2022 season included the 35-23 win over the Springboks at Ellis Park, a performance Reuters later suggested may have saved Foster's job, and two tries in the 42-19 first-Test win over Ireland at Eden Park.

World Player of the Year

A back injury to Cane on the eve of the 2023 World Cup made Savea captain for the first three games in France, including the 27-13 opening loss to the hosts in Paris. In Lyon he scored twice in a 96-17 win over Italy. After Cane returned, Savea scored in the 28-24 quarter-final win over Ireland at the Stade de France, and played No 8 in the semi-final win over Argentina and the 12-11 final loss to South Africa.

The day after the final he was named World Rugby Player of the Year, ahead of Bundee Aki, Antoine Dupont and Eben Etzebeth. "To stand out is based off the foundations of the team," he said. Back home he won the Kelvin R Tremain trophy for a second time and a third straight All Blacks Player of the Year award.

Japan, then Moana Pasifika

Savea spent the 2023-24 Japanese season with the Kobelco Kobe Steelers, then returned for Scott Robertson's first All Blacks season as vice-captain, leading the haka for the first time against Fiji in San Diego. On 21 September 2024 in Sydney he scored his 28th Test try in a 31-28 win over Australia. On RUGBE's records that took him past Richie McCaw's 27 and made him the highest try-scoring forward in All Blacks history.

In July 2024 he recommitted to New Zealand Rugby through the 2027 World Cup, but announced he was leaving the Hurricanes after 131 games for Moana Pasifika, where Julian was already playing. "My brother Julian has told me that this team was made for us," he said. Tana Umaga made him captain. "I believe it's God's purpose for me to lead," Savea said.

The 2025 season was the best in Moana Pasifika's short history. They beat the Highlanders, the Hurricanes, the Crusaders and, for the first time, the Blues, won a club-record six games and finished seventh. With two rounds still to play, Savea was confirmed as the first Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year, voted by players and coaches. Umaga said that working with "someone of his calibre is a privilege". The move came at a cost: his family stayed in Wellington. "Courageous decisions come at a cost," he told 1News, and for him the cost was time with his family.

On 6 September 2025 he became the 15th All Blacks centurion, in a 24-17 win over South Africa at Eden Park that he helped secure with a turnover in the 78th minute. "Ardie embodies everything that makes an All Black," Robertson said that week. At the end of the year he won the Kelvin R Tremain trophy for a third time and All Blacks Player of the Year for a fifth.

2026: a title in Tokyo and the captaincy

He had already arranged to spend 2026 on a second sabbatical with Kobe. "This year at Moana Pasifika was the happiest I've been in my career," he said when it was announced. In Japan he scored twice in a 69-23 League One semi-final win over Suntory Sungoliath, and on 7 June 2026 he started at openside as Kobe beat Kubota Spears 22-13 in front of 50,451 people at Tokyo's National Stadium. It was Kobe's first League One title, under coach Dave Rennie.

Two weeks later Rennie, by then the All Blacks coach, named Savea captain at Feilding Yellows Rugby Club. Savea called it "one of the greatest honours in sport". Rennie said Savea had first offered to back whoever the coaches chose. "He's not a massive talker, but he'll lead through his actions."

The All Blacks won all three July Tests under him: 34-32 against France in Christchurch, 47-17 against Italy in Wellington and 40-21 against Ireland at Eden Park, where Savea scored. Rested for the early games of the South Africa tour, he led the side to a 33-16 win in the first Test at Ellis Park, then scored in the 33-26 loss in Cape Town. In the third Test at FNB Stadium in Soweto on 5 September he scored twice before dislocating his shoulder late in the first half, and the Springboks won 29-24 and went on to take the series 3-1. He had surgery in September. "Surgery done. Back soon," he posted.

Moana Pasifika did not survive. While he was in Japan he said he was praying the club would, telling RugbyJP: "if there's 1% chance of survival that's all we need." With the franchise out of Super Rugby for 2027, he signed with the Blues in October, reuniting with his old Hurricanes coach Jason Holland. "I always think of purpose over circumstance," Savea said.

Style and standing

The coaches who have picked him keep coming back to leadership by example. Robertson said in 2024 that he "has led through his actions over a long period of time", and Rennie said much the same two years later. Holland, introducing him at the Blues, called him "one of the best players in the world". Blues chief executive Karl Budge called him "one of the most entertaining people I've ever met".

Team-mates talk about the work behind it. In 2016 Beauden Barrett said that whenever Savea pulled on a black or a Hurricanes jersey, "he leaves it all out on the field". The NZ Rugby Museum's profile on allblacks.com points to his "remarkable ability to stay alive in the tackle".

Honours: World Rugby Player of the Year 2023 (nominated 2019), Kelvin R Tremain Memorial Player of the Year 2019, 2023 and 2025, All Blacks Player of the Year 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025, Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year 2025, Super Rugby champion 2016, League One champion 2026.

Off the field

Savea launched his own clothing label in 2017 and runs it as a family business. He is married with three children, and has spoken openly about mental health, saying that becoming a father taught him to share his feelings instead of putting up "a brick wall". After the 2023 World Cup his childhood was turned into a children's book, A One Good Kiwi Story: Ardie Savea, with all proceeds going to Kiwi Christmas Books, a charity that gives new books to families who cannot afford them. His faith is central to how he talks about rugby, and at Moana Pasifika he said the environment was "centred around our faith, centred around our people".

Where he is now

Savea, 33, is recovering from shoulder surgery and is not with the All Blacks on the Nations Championship tour of Scotland, Wales and England, where Codie Taylor is captain. He is in the Blues' squad for the 2027 Super Rugby Pacific season, and his New Zealand Rugby contract runs through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia. In 2025 he said he expected to play on for at least two more seasons.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026. Club, provincial, sevens and Japan figures are from Wikipedia, updated September 2026; the Hurricanes total was confirmed by the club in 2024.