Royal Navy player picked for Flying Fijians : Royal Navy Rugby Union

Royal Navy player picked for Flying Fijians

Replacement Matavesi in the RAF v RN 2017 competition

Playing in the 100th Army v Navy match

Sam won his first RNRU cap in the RAF v RN Inter Service match 2017, pictured with team mate Scott Makepeace

Winning his second Navy cap at the 2017 Army v Navy Rugby match

Sam at the 2018 Army v Navy match at Twickenham

Matavesi receives the Cossack Sword award from RNRU President, Admiral Ben Key

It won’t just be sailors and airmen on HMS Queen Elizabeth heading to the other side of the world as RNAS Culdrose’s Logs (SC) Sam Matavesi has been selected in the Fiji squad of 33 players to travel to New Zealand for two Tests in July.

The 29-year-old, who grew up in Cornwall and now plays for Northampton Saints, will hope to add to his 15 Fijian Test caps against the All Blacks on July 10 and 17 in Dunedin and Hamilton respectively.

He and the rest of the players and management traveling to New Zealand will be in quarantine for 14 days in Christchurch, before being cleared to train as a group.

Sam’s last journey to New Zealand was in 2019 where he played for the Flying Fijians against the NZ Maori and Tonga. The test match against Tonga, played at Eden Park in Auckland, was the last time Sam bullied his way across the whitewash for an international try. Everyone at Navy Rugby will be cheering when Sam takes on the All Blacks with the hope that he can make his way onto the scoresheet again!