Tasman Mako player of the year takes career one step at a time

Timoci Tavatavanawai wasn’t expecting to play for a Marlborough rugby club when he left Fiji as a teenager seven years ago. 

There was a misunderstanding between him and his agent: Tavatavanawai thought he was moving to New Zealand to study at a Christchurch high school. 

But the plane landed in Blenheim, as he’d actually been signed by the town’s Central Rugby Club. “Everything was history after that.” 

Tavatavanawai had since left his mark on rugby in the top of the south, being named the 2024 Tasman Mako player of the year and Mako man of the year. 

“To come from the players and management and members of the team, it was actually, yeah, it’s an honour, pleasure, to get this award,” he said. 

“[There is] some other people, other players in that environment that deserve that, but I was very fortunate, enough to get those two awards.” 

Tavatavanawai was gearing up for his second season in the Highlanders, having swapped Super Rugby franchises since making his debut for Moana Pasifika in 2022. 

But despite his success of the field, the currently injured 26-year-old said he was taking things “a step at a time” at the moment. 

Rather than pondering his prospects of future international selection, being eligible for both Fiji and New Zealand’s national squads, Tavatavanawai said he was focused on being fit for Super Rugby. 

“If I perform well in Super Rugby then, if I know that I’ve done well, then I’ll start looking into international, but other than that just yeah, kind of like a step at a time for me at the moment.” 

Tavatavanawai had played in the Fiji schoolboys and under-20 teams before arriving in Aotearoa in 2017 to play club rugby in Marlborough. 

In his mind, the reason for him coming to Aotearoa was to play rugby at Burnside High School in Christchurch, and when he saw there was a Burnside Avenue near Blenheim’s airport when he first landed, he thought “oh yeah, this is close to Burnside now”. 

“My agent never told me that I was going to Blenheim,” Tavatavanawai said. 

“I didn’t even know that I was supposed to play for a club, I thought Burnside was in Blenheim. It was a funny one.” 

His first call up for Tasman came in 2021, and Tavatavanawai felt he’d been “growing and growing” in the Mako jersey. 

Lifting the Ranfurly Shield with the Mako after they pipped Hawke’s Bay in September was a moment he said was “up there” as one of his career highlights. 

“Being on the history page of Tasman, to [be] the first [Mako] team to lift it … it means a lot,” he said. 

The Mako then fended off shield challenges from Wellington and Auckland, but Tavatavanawai was injured in their game against the Aucklanders, cutting his NPC season short. 

Being forced to watch their last shield defence of the season on October 6 from the sidelines, which resulted in Taranaki taking the shield home for the summer, was “actually, really hard”, Tavatavanawai said. 

“You’re helpless on the side of the field, you just can’t really do much, only [thing] you can do is just support them,” he said. 

“But that’s the thing of the game we play, you get injured, you go again.” 

And though Tavatavanawai was back up and running, he was still currently getting rehab for his injured knee. 

“I’ve got another season with [the Highlanders], then I’ll think about what my options are but yeah, I’ve got to focus on getting my body right, getting my knee right,” he said. 

By Matthew Hampson, Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail