Ratu Henry Vao'ofu Speight (born 24 March 1988) is a Fiji-born Australian 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 ...

player. He currently plays for the French club Biarritz. Speight was previously with 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 ...

and

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 ...

in Super Rugby, and has represented Australia with the Wallabies and national sevens team. His playing position is

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

Early life and career

Henry Speight is the son of Fijian politician

Samisoni Tikoinasau Samisoni Tikoinasau Speight is a Fijian politician, who held Cabinet office as Minister of State for Public Utilities and Reforms, to which he was appointed after parliamentary election of May 2006. Previously, he was Minister for Lands and M ...

and the grandson of former Fiji President,

Ratu ''Ratu'' () is an Austronesian title used by male Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, ''adi'' (pronounced ), is used by females of chiefly rank. In the Malay language, the title ''ratu'' is also the traditional honorific title to re ...

Josefa Iloilo Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, (29 December 1920 – 6 February 2011) was a Fijian politician who served as the 3rd President of Fiji from 2000 until 2009, excluding a brief period from 5 December 2006 to 4 January 2007 (see below). He ...

. He was born in Suva, Fiji, where he attended

Queen Victoria School Queen Victoria School (QVS) is a non-selective, co-educational, boarding school predominantly for children of Scottish Servicemen/women (but see full admissions criteria, below) aged 10/11 to 18. It occupies a Scottish Baronial-style building on ...

before moving to New Zealand for his final years of high school. His first taste of pro-rugby came in his final year at Hamilton Boys High School, when he was picked for Waikato, making his debut against the

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaw ...

in 2008. Speight went on to represent the province over four seasons. Not eligible for the

New Zealand Schoolboys The New Zealand Schools rugby union team, commonly referred to as the New Zealand schoolboys rugby team, is composed of secondary school students in New Zealand. Many of the players have gone on to play for professional clubs or provinces or for ...

, Speight represented his native Fiji in the same year at the Junior World Cup in Belfast.

Super Rugby and Australia

Speight made his Brumbies debut during the

2011 Super Rugby season The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16t ...

against the Chiefs in Canberra. After becoming eligible for national selection, on 11 September 2014, Speight made his Wallabies debut during the 2014 Spring Tour against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In early 2018 Speight signed with Australia for at least one more year, showing his dedication to Australian rugby despite offers of contracts by foreign clubs.Speight re-signs with Wallabies
/ref> After signing a short deal in late 2018 with

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

as a temporary replacement for the injured Louis Ludik, he returned to the Brumbies for the 2019 season before joining the

for the 2020 season. Speight's first game was against his old team, the Brumbies. He scored a try in that match to officially make him the only player to have scored tries against all 18 (current and former) super rugby teams. Speight then moved to France on a 3-year contract with

Biarritz Olympique Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (; ), usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Basque city of Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine which competes in the Pro D2, the second division of French rugby. Biarritz p ...

Super Rugby statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speight, Henry 1988 births Living people Fijian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Rugby union wings Biarritz Olympique players ACT Brumbies players Canberra Vikings players Waikato rugby union players Fijian expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in France Fijian expatriate sportspeople in France Sportspeople from Suva People educated at Queen Victoria School (Fiji) People educated at Hamilton Boys' High School I-Taukei Fijian people Fijian people of British descent Ulster Rugby players