Schoolgirl sensation Dhys Faleafaga returns to SVNS with new purpose

After a five-year hiatus, Dhys Faleafaga is back in the Black Ferns Sevens. With All Blacks Sevens player Tone Ng Shiu, Faleafaga is the mother of identical twin boys Kamari and Kaziel.

From a netball, touch, and volleyball background, Faleafaga was a prodigy when she was first selected for the Black Ferns Sevens in Japan in 2019.

In 2018, she became one of 28 players who were the first to earn Black Ferns contracts while still at school.

Her mother, Vanessa was a flanker who represented Samoa at the 2002 and 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cups. She also played netball for the Central Pulse. An older sister Lyric Faleafaga was a contracted Black Ferns Sevens player.

Dhys helped St Mary’s College, Wellington win National Condor Sevens and Top Four First XV titles in 2016 and 2017. Then she was part of the powerful Wellington Pride team in 2018 that won the Farah Palmer Cup Premiership by scoring a record number of points and tries in a season. A loose forward, Faleafaga scored 45 tries in 23 games (20 wins) for her club side Nothern United. In May 2022, when her twins were born, life suddenly became very different.

“It was hard to believe until I actually gave birth to them. Tone was shocked, we were both in tears, happy, but it’s scary finding out,” Faleafaga told RubgyPass.

“It wasn’t easy, but the bigger picture is that we were happy and so were our families.

“I had to be the stay-at-home mum until Tone got back from training, then I would go out and do my training. It was hard trying to have the energy to go out and train, but I knew I really wanted to get back into rugby.

“They’re energetic boys, very cheeky, but me and Tone are like that so we can’t even get mad. When you become a parent, and they’re your own kids, it’s so cool. It’s quite cool coming home and being able to switch off and not think about training or games.”

Faleafaga found out she was pregnant while on the Black Ferns 15s tour of England and France in 2021. The Black Ferns were beaten 38-13 by France in Pau where Faleafaga was concussed a second time while discovering she would become a mother.

Concussion for Dhys and an 18-month ACL injury for Ng Shiu presented difficult challenges during Faleafaga’s pregnancy but it also built a resilience that Dhys hopes to share with the Black Ferns Sevens upon return.

Faleafaga insists she’s as fit as ever but is aware competition in SVNS has improved dramatically since her last appearance in Biarritz. The USA beat New Zealand 26-10 in the cup final of that French Sevens.

“Every team I played was hard. It’s pretty cool to see all the teams are catching up to New Zealand and the uncertainty of who is going to win the World Series. It’s quite nerve-wracking and exciting walking back into that space,” Faleafaga said.

The best result Faleafaga achieved with the Black Ferns Sevens was a win in the 2019 Langford Sevens. Despite two tries by Ella Green, tries to Sarah Hirini, Niall Williams-Guthrie, and Tyler King, all converted by King, gave New Zealand a 21-17 win over Australia in the final. Actor Jason Momoa visited the Black Ferns beforehand. Falefaga had scored tries in the 17-7 win against Spain and the 45-0 whitewash of China.

This weekend Faleafaga will likely play prop in the opening round of the 2023/24 SVNS in Dubai. The Black Ferns are without superstars Tyla King, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, Michaela Blyde and Stacey Waaka but have retained eight of the Olympic gold-medal winning squad from Paris in July. Justine McGregor, Katelyn Vahaakolo and Olive Watherston are debutants.

“The rest of the world actually don’t know about these three athletes so there’s a real opportunity to take teams by surprise this weekend.,” Black Ferns Sevens coach Cory Sweeney observed.

“Other teams have seen Katelyn on the world stage with the 15s but even with ourselves there is a bit of an unknown there and that’s quite exciting because it really does become a blank canvas.”

In Dubai, New Zealand is grouped with Brazil who they’ve beaten in all 17 previous meetings, Japan who haven’t conquered the Black Ferns in 16 attempts and Canada who have lost 35 of 38 encounters against New Zealand but went within a whisker of a boilover in the Olympic final less than six months ago.