Billy Ngawini (born 24 August 1981) is an

Italian international The Italian International in badminton is an international open held in Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterrane ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

footballer who plays for

Rugby Rovigo Delta stadium, 200px Rugby Rovigo Delta, formerly known until 2010 as Rugby Rovigo, is an Italian rugby union club currently competing in the Top10. They are based in Rovigo, in Veneto. The club was founded in 1935 by medical student Dino Lanzoni, wh ...

in the

Top12 The Top10, known as the Peroni Top10 for sponsorship reasons, and formerly Top 12, is Italy's top level professional men's rugby union competition. The Top 10 is run by Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) and is contested by 10 teams as of the 2019� ...

and

Amlin Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception ...

in Europe. He has previously played in the

National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to: * National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides * National Provincial Championship (2006–present) The National Provincial Championship, o ...

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

for the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilit ...

and the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

. He is well known in the rugby world for his stepping ability.

Background

Ngawini was born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand. He is now a naturalised Italian.

Early career

Ngawini began his career in rugby union, having been contracted to the

Waikato Chiefs The Chiefs (formerly known as the Waikato Chiefs and officially called the Gallagher Chiefs for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Hamilton, Waikato. The team competes in the Super Rugby competition ...

Super 12 franchise for four years beginning 2001. In 2001 he was also selected in the All Black 7s training squad with the likes of

Joe Rokocoko Josevata Taliga "Joe" Rokocoko (pronounced , born 6 June 1983) is a New Zealand former professional rugby union player, who played as a wing. Born in Fiji, Rokocoko grew up in New Zealand and played for the Blues and Auckland. He later played f ...

and

Eric Rush Eric James Rush (born 11 February 1965 in Kaeo) is a New Zealand former rugby union footballer and rugby sevens legend, and now a supermarket owner. His New Zealand Sevens career began in 1988 and ran until past his 39th birthday in 2004. Ru ...

. Ngawini switched to

in 2004, attracting national media attention in a standout performance for the NZ A side that beat the Kangaroo XIII in a 2005 Test. Ngawini featured in ''Ngati NRL'' documentary on Maori TV, which follows a number of Maori boys trying to crack the Australian NRL competition.

Bulldogs career

Debut: Vs Parramatta – 14 May 2006 Dog Years: (2) 2006, 2007 Ngawini joined the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in 2006 as a , but was developed into playing at . He received the opportunity to play in the NRL in Round 10 against arch-rivals

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

. He went on to play a further two games in the top grade against the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby leag ...

the following week and then in Round 14 against the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

Gold Coast Titans

Ngawini moved from the Canterbury club to the

for the 2008 NRL season. Debut: vs Wests Tigers, 7 September 2008

Gold Coast Breakers

Ngawini left the Gold Coast Titans at the end of the 2008 NRL season to move back to rugby union, and began the transition by joining the

Gold Coast Breakers The Bond University Rugby Club is an Australian rugby union football club that competes in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition. The club is based at the Bond University campus on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast. Bond Univer ...

squad in the

Queensland Premier Rugby Queensland Premier Rugby is a semi professional club rugby union competition in Queensland, Australia. Nine clubs play in the competition, eight of which are from Brisbane with one club from the Gold Coast. The premiership has been contested ...

. Debut: Vs Souths – 4 April 2009 He made an exciting start to the 2009 season for the Breakers, playing at fullback and first-five. His excellent footwork, fast pace, accurate passing and deft offloads assisted in many scoring plays. Helped the Breakers climb to second in the competition table after eleven rounds. Despite only playing the first half of the season (due to his move to

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of ...

), Ngawini had the third highest number of votes in the Alec Evans Medal for the best and fairest player in the Queensland Premier Rugby. During his time playing rugby union on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, he was also selected to play for the Queensland Reds 2nd XV.

Leinster Rugby

He played with Leinster Rugby at the beginning of the 2009–10 Magners League. He was selected for the Leinster squad for the pre-season match vs

Rugby Nice Côte d'Azur Université-Racing Rugby Nice Côte d'Azur Université-Racing was a French rugby union club, which went into liquidation in June 2012. Nice was founded in 1912, as Racing Rugby Club de Nice. Nice was runner-up in the national championship in the 1982-83 season. In 19 ...

, scoring an impressive try in the 66th minute on debut for Leinster. He also played for Leinster versus

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

. Visa issues prevented his continuation with Leinster.

Nice Rugby

Ngawini signed with

(RNCA) in 2009.

Italian Super 10

After three hugely successful years with

Rugby Club I Cavalieri Prato Rugby Club I Cavalieri is a rugby union team from the city of Prato, Italy. They play in the Top12 having finished 2nd in the 2012–13 edition, losing to Mogliano Rugby in the final. History The team was formed in 2000 through the merger of three ...

including a well publicised performance against Stade Francais in the

, Ngawini moved to

as part of an extensive recruitment drive by the club. He quickly became a crowd favourite at

, scoring 15 tries in his first season alone, winning the accolade of most tries scored in Italy in the 2013/14 season.

Wicklow RFC

For the 2017/2018 season he joined Irish Junior rugby team Wicklow Town RFC, playing in Leinster Division 1A, deploying his step alongside such greats as Dean H Leonard and Tommy O Donovan. Playing at scrum half and winger Billy scored many tries and received many many yellow cards.

References

External links

Gold Coast Titans profileBulldogs profileCavalieri profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngawini, Billy 1981 births New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand Māori rugby league players Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Gold Coast Titans players Papakura Sea Eagles players Cavalieri Prato players Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league hookers Living people Chiefs (rugby union) players Leinster Rugby players Rugby Rovigo Delta players Male rugby sevens players Italy international rugby sevens players New Zealand sportsmen New Zealand emigrants to Italy