Anthony Fainga'a (born 2 February 1987) is an Australian former professional

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. His usual position is

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Family and early life

Anthony Fainga'a was born in

Queanbeyan, New South Wales Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in the south-eastern region of New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the ...

, and started playing rugby league as a five-year-old with the Queanbeyan Kangaroos. He attended St. Edmund's College where he first represented the school's 1st XV aged 15. He was selected as vice-captain of the Australian Schools team in 2004. Anthony's twin brother

Saia Saia is an American less than truckload (LTL) trucking company, that originated in Houma, Louisiana in 1924. With original operation occurring in Louisiana and Texas for the first fifty years, expansion came after 1980 when coverage began re ...

, and younger brothers Vili and Colby are also professional rugby union players. The Fainga'a's are of Tongan and Aboriginal descent.

Rugby career

Fainga'a was vice captain of the World Championship-winning Australian Under 19's in 2006. He sealed Australia's 17–13 Under 19 final win over New Zealand with a late drop goal and was later nominated for the

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international ru ...

's Under 19 Player of the Year. He also represented the Australian Under 21s in 2006. Fainga'a made his Super 14 debut for the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

against the Bulls in 2007 after recovering from a

Lisfranc fracture A Lisfranc injury, also known as Lisfranc fracture, is an injury of the foot in which one or more of the metatarsal bones are displaced from the tarsus. The injury is named after Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin, a French surgeon and gynecologi ...

in his left foot and added a further two caps during the season, coming off the bench against the Stormers and

Sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

. A confident ball player and punishing defender, Fainga'a was called into the Australian Sevens side for the final two tournaments of the 2007 World Series in London and Edinburgh. He played in all eight matches for the

Canberra Vikings The Canberra Vikings, formerly the Canberra Kookaburras, is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is based at Viking Park in Wanniassa, and is backed by the Tuggeranong Vikin ...

in the Mazda

Australian Rugby Championship The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...

, taking on the goal kicking duties at the back end of the season. In 2008, Anthony and his twin brother Saia signed on with

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competitions ...

for the 2009 season. He joined the Reds Development Tour to Ireland and France at the end of 2008 and made his full Reds debut in 2009. At the start of the 2010 season, he lined up as the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

' starting No. 12. Fainga'a made his test debut for Australia against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

in Melbourne in 2010. He played in 16 matches of the Reds 2011 Super Rugby title-winning season in including the semi-final win over the Blues and final victory over the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

. He was selected alongside his brother Saia in the Wallabies squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, where Australia took third place.

Reference list

External links

* *
itsrugby.co.uk profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fainga'a, Anthony 1987 births Living people Australian rugby union players Indigenous Australian rugby union players ACT Brumbies players Queensland Reds players Queensland Country (NRC team) players Rugby union centres Australia international rugby union players Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Twin sportspeople People from Queanbeyan Hanazono Kintetsu Liners players Australian expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in Japan Australian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Rugby union players from New South Wales