Sanita Levave (born 8 November 1988) is a women's rugby union player from

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand. She plays as a Lock for

Northern United Northern United All Stars is a Saint Lucian football club based in Gros Islet, competing in the Saint Lucia Gold Division, the top tier of Football in Saint Lucia, Saint Lucian football. The club participated in the 2011 CFU Club Championship, 20 ...

, Wellington Pride and the

New Zealand women's national rugby union team The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns, represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tournamen ...

. She is the sister of the Hurricanes and

Samoa national rugby union team The Samoa national rugby union team (also known as Manu Samoa) represents Samoa in men's international rugby union and it is governed by the Samoa Rugby Union. They are also known as Manu Samoa, which is thought to derive from the name of a Samo ...

player

Faifili Levave Faifili Levave (born ) is a Samoan rugby union player currently playing for the Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars in the Top League. He previously notably played for the Wellington Lions and the Hurricanes in Super Rugby. His position of choice is ...

Career

Levave played netball and basketball at school but started playing rugby at

St Mary's College, Wellington St Mary's College Wellington is situated in the suburb of Thorndon in Wellington, New Zealand. The school is a state-integrated all-girls Catholic secondary school for years 9–13. History The school, which is one of the oldest existing scho ...

however at the time, St Mary's did not have a girl's rugby team so Levave was granted permission to play for

Wellington Girls' College Wellington Girls' College was founded in 1883 in Wellington, New Zealand. At that time it was called Wellington Girls' High School. Wellington Girls' College is a year 9 to 13 state secondary school, located in Thorndon in central Wellington. H ...

in lieu. She practiced rugby outside of school with her brother Faifili. She started playing for Northern United and was eventually called up by the

Wellington Rugby Football Union The Wellington Rugby Football Union (known as the Wellington Lions for competition reasons) are a New Zealand governing body of rugby union in the New Zealand province of Wellington Region. The main stadium is Sky Stadium (formerly named Westp ...

to play for Wellington Pride. She made her debut for Wellington Pride in 2008. Levave aimed for a place in the New Zealand national women's rugby team however received repeated rejections owing to her lack of fitness. As a result, she started fitness work including

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ac ...

which resulted in her losing 20kg going from 107kg to 87 kg. As a result of her improved fitness and speed, she was called up by the New Zealand Rugby Union for the New Zealand women's national team in 2014 for the International Women's Rugby Series. Afterwards she was selected to play in New Zealand's

2014 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup was the seventh edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, and the sixth held in Europe. The World Cup Final took place on 17 August. All of the pool games for the World Cup took place at the Centre National du R ...

squad in France. At the tournament, she was the second tallest player at 1.86m.

Personal life

Levave studied for a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in nursing while playing rugby. She lives with her brother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levave, Sanita Living people 1988 births New Zealand women's international rugby union players New Zealand female rugby union players Wellington rugby union players 20th-century New Zealand women 21st-century New Zealand women