Henry Fa'afili (born 30 May 1980) is a former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He played representative rugby league (RL) for New Zealand Secondary Schools, the New Zealand

Junior Kiwis The Junior Kiwis side represents New Zealand in the sport of rugby league. They are commonly known as the Junior Kiwis, after the native bird of that name. Since 2010, they are an under-20s side, with players selected from the NRL, Intrust Sup ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

, and at club level for

Auckland Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

and the

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

, as a , or , he switched codes in 2007, and played representative rugby union (RU) for

, and at club level for

Biarritz Olympique Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (; ), usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Iparralde, Basque city of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine ...

, Leeds Carnegie and

Connacht Rugby Connacht Rugby is one of the four professional provincial men's rugby union, rugby teams from the island of Ireland. Connacht competes in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Connacht B ...

, as a

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

, or

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 eccentricity ...

. As of 2022, he resides in

Tauranga Tauranga (, Māori language for "resting place," or "safe anchorage") is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty Region and the List of cities in New Zealand, fifth-most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of or roughly 3% of t ...

as a head coach and head mentor for a

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

academy for underprivileged boys.

Early years

Fa'afili was born in

Apia, Samoa Apia () is the capital and largest city of Samoa. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō'') of Tuamasaga. The Apia Urban Area (generally kno ...

but migrated to New Zealand with his family when he was 3. He was educated at both Manurewa High School and De La Salle College, Mangere East. He represented both the New Zealand Secondary Schools team and the

in 1998.''New Zealand Rugby League Annual '98'',

New Zealand Rugby Football League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood '' ...

, 1998. p. 181

New Zealand Warriors

He made his début for the

in the Australasian

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

in round 8 of the 2000 NRL season against the

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

. In the

2001 NRL season The 2001 NRL season was the 94th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the fourth run by the National Rugby League. Also called the 2001 Telstra Premiership (due to sponsorship from Telstra Corporation) it was contested ...

, he played 27 games as the newly rebranded New Zealand Warriors side qualified for the finals in what was the first time in their history. He played in the clubs 56-12 qualifying final loss to

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

. In 2002, New Zealand claimed the

Minor Premiership A minor premiership is the title given to the team which finishes a sporting competition first in the league standings after the regular season but prior to commencement of the finals in several Australian sports leagues. Origins The etymolo ...

with Fa'afili playing 17 games. Fa'afili did not play in the clubs 2002 NRL Grand Final loss against the Sydney Roosters. In 2003, New Zealand reached the finals once again but were defeated in the preliminary final against eventual premiers Penrith with Fa'afili playing in this game.

Warrington Wolves

Fa'afili signed for the

in 2004, and made his début on Sunday 8 August 2004, and whilst at the Warrington Wolves he scored many tries from high cross field kicks from Lee Briers. He scored 73 tries in 97 appearances for the Warrington Wolves. He was the top try-scorer in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

for the 2007's

Super League XII Engage Super League XII is the official name for the year 2007's Super League season in the sport of rugby league. The 2007 season kicked off on the weekend of 2 February 2007 at the Galpharm Stadium. For the first time, the league had a stagge ...

. He left the Warrington Wolves at the end of 2007 season because of salary cap restraints. Fa'afili played his last match for the Warrington Wolves in the 34–26 victory over the Salford City Reds on Friday 14 September 2007.

Harlequins Rugby League

After scoring 38 tries in 94 games for the Warriors, Fa'afili netted 72 in 92 at the Warrington Wolves and was Super League's top try scorer for the 2007 season, he was signed by Harlequins RL.http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/mobile/rugby_league/super_league/london/6980403.stm However he was tapped up to sign for Biarritz and left manager Brian McDermott and chairman Ian Lenagan furious.http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/7045072.stm

Biarritz Olympique

Fa'afili agreed what was initially seen as a short-term deal with French

side

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; also spelled ; ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. It is a luxu ...

. He was initially meant to play there short-term but ended up staying longer.

Leeds Carnegie

He joined Leeds Carnegie ahead of the 2010–11 English Premiership season but left after one season when the club were relegated.

Connacht Rugby

Henry joined Connacht in the summer of 2011 as part of Head Coach Eric Elwood's squad, joining fellow Samoan Ray Ofisa. He left after one season

International career

Fa'afili has also represented New Zealand in rugby league at international level on several occasions, scoring a hat-trick against Great Britain in 2003 at

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a Association football, football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the English Football League, Football League and Premier League, who have played there since ...

, Blackburn during the Tri-Nations. His last appearance for New Zealand was against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in June 2006 at St Helens. He also represented Samoa in the 2000 World Cup. He has also been capped internationally in rugby union for

Match Fit

In 2023, Fa'afili participated in season 3 of ''Match Fit'', where former rugby players return to play against the Australian counterparts. He joined in the first season that featured former

stars. He revealed he had undergone double hip replacements, but collapsed after finishing the first Bronco agility test due to breathing difficulties. It was later revealed he was suffering from

atrial fibrillation Atrial fibrillation (AF, AFib or A-fib) is an Heart arrhythmia, abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) characterized by fibrillation, rapid and irregular beating of the Atrium (heart), atrial chambers of the heart. It often begins as short periods ...

and a precursor to a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

. He was medically retired from this programme and put on a tailor-made programme away from the cameras to get himself back in relative health. During the next 11 weeks, he had psychological counselling, but also done the Tauranga Round the Bays 5 km fun run. He even beat Alex Flint, the show's trainer, in terms of heart rate control in the 11-week reassessment. He also managed to half his time on the final Bronco with a time of 6:41, beating Lesley Vanikolo's time of 7:30. On the final episode, however, he revealed that he was declared unfit to play due to risk of cardiac arrest and his lack of full contact training. In 2024, he was cleared by his cardiologist to return for ''Match Fit: Union vs. League''. While Pita Alatini and

Carlos Spencer Carlos James Spencer (born 14 October 1975) is a former New Zealand rugby union player and previously the head coach of the and the . He is currently an assistant coach for the New Orleans Gold of Major League Rugby (MLR). During his playing ...

went -15 for metabolic age vs. biological age for the best possible result, he and Lesley Vanikolo started out +15, which is the worst possible result. He also suffered dizziness before the initial Bronco test, but the tests had shown that due to atrial fibrilation, he can no longer perform at a level required for the show and had to withdraw and rehab again.

References

External links

Henry Fa'afili official player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fa'afili, Henry 1980 births Living people Biarritz Olympique players Connacht Rugby players Junior Kiwis players Leeds Tykes players Manurewa Marlins players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in England New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in France New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Ireland New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand Warriors players People educated at De La Salle College, Māngere East People educated at Manurewa High School Rugby league wingers Rugby league players from Apia Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Apia Samoa international rugby union players Samoa national rugby league team players Samoan emigrants to New Zealand Samoan rugby league players Samoan rugby union players Souths Logan Magpies players Warrington Wolves players