Xavier Savage (born 24 April 2002) is an Australian professional

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 112 ...

footballer who plays as a and er for 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 ...

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 ...

(NRL).

Background

Savage was born in

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. He is an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

(from

Birri Gubba The Birri Gubba people, formerly known as Biria, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Language The Birri Gubba people spoke a number of languages in the Biri language group. Country The Biria held sway over some , ...

and

Gungganyji The Guŋgañji, also transcribed Gungganyji, Gunggandji, Kongkandji, and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Language The Guŋgañji speak Gungay, a dialect of the Yidiny language. Country Norman T ...

people) and a

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped ...

(from

Erub Island Darnley Island or ''Erub'' in the native Papuan language, Meriam Mir, is an island formed by volcanic action and situated in the eastern section of the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the Torres Strait Islands and is locat ...

Playing career

2021

In round 15 of the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

, Savage made his first grade debut for the

against the

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint-ve ...

. He entered the game as a concussion replacement (18th man) for

Sebastian Kris Sebastian Kris (born 19 April 1999) is a New Zealand international rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Canberra Raiders in the NRL. Background Kris was born in Brisbane, Queensland and is of Indigenous Australian, South African a ...

, playing 12 minutes after half-time until officials realized that

Jack Bird Jack Bird (born 20 March 1995) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and forward for the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL. Bird previously played for the Brisbane Broncos and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sha ...

had not been sin-binned or sent off for his tackle on Kris, a requirement for using the 18th man. On 20 July 2021, it was announced that Savage would miss the remainder of the

after suffering an AC shoulder joint injury in Canberra's win over Cronulla-Sutherland.

2022

Savage played a total of 19 games for Canberra in the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season is the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest s ...

as the club finished 8th on the table and qualified for the finals. Savage played in both finals matches as Canberra were eliminated in the second week by

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 ...

2023

On 15 March, it was announced that Savage would be ruled out for over 4 weeks with a broken jaw. Savage played only one match for Canberra in the

2023 NRL season The 2023 NRL season is the 116th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 26th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams For the 2023 season, the number of teams in the NRL has increased from sixteen to seventeen with the ...

Statistics

References

External links

Canberra Raiders profile
2002 births Living people Australian people of New Zealand descent Australian rugby league players Indigenous Australian rugby league players Torres Strait Islanders Canberra Raiders players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Cairns Rugby league wingers {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-stub