Date of birth | 19 November 1995 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place of birth | Motoʻotua, Samoa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 73 kg (161 lb; 11 st 7 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | St. Joseph's College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Melani Matavao (born 19 November 1995) is a Samoan professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for the Samoa national team. [1]
Matavao has come through Samoa's PPS Super 9 competition as a key player for the Aana Chiefs. [2] In 2018 he was given a place with Otago under World Rugby's Pacific Combine scheme, [3] [4] playing 7 games in the 2018 Mitre 10 Cup season. [5]
In 2019 he signed for the Asia Pacific Dragons, [6] but did not play any matches with the team. [7]
In 2015 Matavao was selected for the Samoan Under 20 side for the U20 World Championship in Italy. [8] In 2016 he was selected for Samoa A. [9]
He was selected for the Samoan national team in 2017, [10] making his debut in a test against Scotland in Edinburgh. [11] He played for Samoa in the 2018 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup. [12] He was decisive in Samoa's qualification for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, scoring two tries in a qualifier against Germany. [13]
In February 2019 he was selected for the first time for the Samoa Sevens. [14] [15] He was then named to Samoa's Rugby World Cup squad. [16] After the world cup, he played in the 2020 world sevens series. [17]
Matavao was selected for the Samoan squad to the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town. [18]
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