Hull FC forward Andre Savelio reminisces on his childhood, moving to the UK and following in his father’s sporting footsteps in the latest ‘Back To My Roots’ feature.
FC: Firstly, just tell us what you can remember about being born and spending the first year of your life in New Zealand?
“I don’t really remember it, to be honest. My old man moved over here for rugby when I was less than a year old. I still go back to New Zealand whenever I can to see the family, mainly during the off-season. Here is home in the sense that it was where I was brought up, but New Zealand is also home because that’s where all my family is.
“Back over in New Zealand where I come from I would say it’s pretty quiet. I wouldn’t say it’s rural but it’s definitely not like the city. I would say it’s more town-like. Everything is really built up over here in England but Lower Hutt isn’t like that in New Zealand. There’s nowhere really like it in England.”
FC: Moving onto the rugby, what are your earliest memories of playing?
“I don’t remember up until a certain age, but the first thing I can remember is that my old man had just finished up as a player-coach at Workington and I started playing for a local team called Arlecdon, which is in Workington in Cumbria. Then I moved to Maryport – I only remember bits and bobs from that because I was still really young. After that, that’s when my journey really started. The family moved to Warrington – I class myself as a Warrington boy – and I started playing for Latchford Albion with Declan Patton and Joe Philbin.”
FC: How much did your dad inspire you to start playing rugby?
“He pushed me into it but I wanted to play football more at that age. Growing up in England, obviously football is the bigger sport but he encouraged me to play rugby league. I was in and out of playing both and it wasn’t until I was about 11 or 12 that I really settled into rugby. I got into a couple of the Warrington junior sides and just stuck my foot down and got into rugby from there onwards.”
FC: At that age you were still at school. Can you take us back to your school days?
“It was good. I enjoyed school. I still speak to a lot of my school mates now. I went to school with Declan Patton, too. We’re all still really tight. We’re all in a big group message and we talk every single day. We had an alright rugby team, but unfortunately there was a better rugby school team in Warrington who we could never beat!”
FC: What kind of a person would you say you were at school?
“I was naughty! I wouldn’t say I was over-the-board naughty, but I didn’t ever get any stickers or anything like that!”
FC: How did the switch from Latchford at an amateur level to St Helens come about?
“I played for Warrington’s junior team until Under 14s at the same time. I don’t know if it’s the same in Hull, but you have to play for your catchment area’s junior team up until a certain age, and once you pass that age you can be scouted by teams from elsewhere. At 14 or 15, I had Saints, Warrington and Wigan all interested in signing me. I was really happy at Warrington, but I met all three clubs.
“I went to meet with Wigan, and growing up as a boy I was a Wigan fan, so before I had met any of the clubs, in my head I was sold on going to Wigan. I went for a look around and it just didn’t impress me. It didn’t look like it was going to benefit me.
“So I went to meet St Helens and it was Mike Rush and Derek Traynor leading the meeting. They had it on lockdown! They were like, “we’re going to do this” and “we’re going to do that” so they sold it really well. They had the Australia tour for when you turned 16, as well. Barring George Williams and Ryan Sutton, all of the main players at our age group ended up joining St Helens. So there was me, Luke Thompson, Greg Richards, and there were a couple of others who have veered off into the Championship since.”
FC: Can you remember much from your Super League debut with St Helens?
“I hadn’t trained much that off-season because I had been unwell – I had a brain issue when I was that age. Quite a few of the boys had gone down injured and it was right at the start of the year, but I wasn’t expecting to play at all that year, to be honest. Kieron [Cunningham] was the assistant coach at the time and he gave me a call, whilst I was also getting subbed into stuff that I never normally used to get subbed into at that time. So I knew something was going on, but it never clicked for me. But then Browny [Nathan Brown] told me at the end of one training session that he was going to play me that week.
“We were missing quite a few, but we ended up upsetting Leeds actually. I only ended up playing about 15 minutes. I remember taking a couple of good carries, but I do remember making a mistake.
“The jump between academy and first team is quite big. At academy, you just tackle who’s in front of you, but at first team once your man has passed the ball, you’ve got to keep moving. I didn’t move across, then someone else had to sink in and then another person had to sink in. They ended up hitting a lead and went on and scored a try off that play.
“At the time, I didn’t realise that it was my fault – that’s how far behind I was!”
FC: From Saints you moved to Warrington in 2017. How did that move materialise?
“At the start of 2015, I was still with Saints and we played South Sydney in the World Club Challenge and Brisbane played Wigan. Brisbane were after me at the time, so I went and met Wayne Bennett and he asked if I wanted to sign for them. But I was still young at the time and I was comfortable at Saints, so I didn’t fancy it.
“But it got to the end of 2016 and I was pushing to leave Saints because we had a bit of a fallout unfortunately. I spoke to Wayne again, but I had left it too late because Brisbane were already at the salary cap, so I ended up signing for a year with Warrington for 2017.
“I also nearly went to Warrington at the end of 2015, too. I know this is getting a bit confusing now! But I ended up staying with Saints and signing for another year until the end of 2016, so when that ran out I moved to Warrington.”
FC: Whilst you were at Warrington you had that World Club Challenge match with Brisbane, so was that a second chance for you to move to the NRL?
“Yeah, I had an alright game. I was injured actually and the physios were tallying up whether to play me or not during the week. But I ended up playing and I played well and it was just afterwards that Wayne came again, so I ended up agreeing to it.”
FC: You’ve spoken about your time at Brisbane and especially the facilities they have there. Can you tell us more about that?
“Yeah they were so good. The training ground was like an NFL one! They had just built it when I got there so it was brand-new and it was a three-floor thing. There were swimming pools, gyms, saunas. It was unbelievable. And the pitches were in really good condition too.”
FC: How tough was it with the knee injury you suffered at Brisbane?
“Yeah it was really tough. I had gone over there for pre-season in great shape. I was the fittest and fastest I have ever been. And then in my first game I did my ACL.
“I was probably tussling with Jaydn Su’a for a bench spot when I first went over. There was Alex Glenn and Matt Gillett in front of me, and it’s such a conveyor belt of talent over in the NRL. So there were already four quality back-rowers in the team at that point and that just shows the strength in depth teams over there have.
“I obviously did my knee and the next player to step in was David Fifita Jr. Look at him now – he’s a hell of a player! So my knee injury just sent me right to the bottom of the pack.”
FC: And then you joined Hull FC, where you are now. How did the move come about?
“I just got a call and I didn’t really give it a second thought. I looked at the roster at the time and it was a pretty good one – it’s even better now. But at the time it was a good squad and I wanted to come back to one of the bigger teams in Super League.”
Want more? Click here to watch the full interview with Andre Savelio to hear even more about his rugby league journey!
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