‘I’m living the dream’: Tepaea Cook-Savage’s path from labourer to Olympian

As rain poured down from above on a gloomy day in New Zealand, All Blacks Sevens coach Tomasi Cama tried to make Tepaea Cook-Savage laugh. “It’s a bit of a dark day today,” Cama said, but Cook-Savage was far too anxious to say anything meaningful in response.

With the coaching staff sitting in a semi-circle in front of him, the 23-year-old was about to find out if all the sacrifice, dedication and resilience had paid off with the ultimate honour. As cliché as that sounds, that’s what it takes to become an Olympian.

Cook-Savage had grown up in the North Island town of Kaitaia before moving down south to Hamilton on a scholarship. Everything seemed to be tracking in the right direction, but once he graduated from St Paul’s Collegiate School, that’s when the real “grind” began.

New Zealand can be a fairly cold place on any given morning, and the young Kiwi felt the full brunt of that in the pursuit of rugby excellence.

The gym was first on the agenda with 5 or 5:30 am starts, and the then-labourer would follow that with a full day on a worksite from about 7 in the morning. After a day on the tools, Cook-Savage would go to club training at half past five in the early evening.

Cook-Savage did that four days a week for up to two years. There are plenty of reasons to give up on a dream when there’s a commitment like that, and a lot of people do. While the former St Paul’s First XV skipper thought about it, sticking with it was “what you’ve got to do.”

“To be honest, I didn’t think I’d be playing sevens or anything,” Cook-Savage told RugbyPass.

“I always knew I wanted to play rugby and I always knew that was the goal but I just didn’t really know how I was going to get there… that was a bit of a grind, bro. I didn’t really have too much support or anything in Hamilton, it was just me down there.

“I always knew rugby was what I wanted to do, it was just a matter of what it looked like to be honest and how I was going to get there.

“That work and academy life is almost like a filtering system, whoever stays in it kind of thing because boys just drop out fast.

“I almost dropped out a few times. A lot of times you’re like, ‘Is this even worth it?’”

It all paid off with Waikato offering the playmaker a deal. Cook-Savage debuted in the famed red, yellow and black strip in a round one win over North Harbour on August 8, 2021, and went on to play another six matches that season which included one start against Bay of Plenty.

Cook-Savage continued to chip away at his craft, and after another strong season in New Zealand’s NPC, he was rewarded. Coach Clark Laidlaw invited the youngster to represent New Zealand at the Oceania Sevens in Pukekohe.

The coaching staff liked what they saw.

After being invited back into the sevens environment to “fill numbers” during some internal games, Cook-Savage was called up as a replacement player for the injured Andrew ‘Stubs’ Knewstubb. Three weeks later, the debutant travelled to Dubai and then Cape Town.

“I’m living the dream every day now so it’s definitely worth it,” Cook-Savage explained with a wide smile as he reflected on his journey.

“Every time we’ve got testing or whatever I’m just like, ‘I could be slaving on a worksite.’

“Living the dream, bro. It’s definitely worth it.”

Cook-Savage has since become an integral part of the All Blacks Sevens’ squad.

While he only stands at 5 ft 8, or about 173 centimetres tall, the Kiwi has rapid acceleration, a brilliant eye for the sport and is fearless in defence. Add that all together and you’ve got a blueprint for what a sevens player should be.

Playing alongside the likes of Scott Curry, Tone Ng Shiu and captain Dylan Collier, Cook-Savage played a key role in New Zealand’s run to Hong Kong Sevens glory just over 100 days ago.

Cook-Savage scored one try in a thrilling semi-final win over traditional rivals Australia at the world-famous Hong Kong Stadium, and once again impressed in the decider against Antoine Dupont’s France.

From the outside looking in, Cook-Savage was practically a certainty to make the Olympics squad but the man himself can be forgiven for feeling some nerves.

So, that brings this tale back to the start with the sevens ace sitting in front of the New Zealand men’s coaching staff.

“It’s probably the most anxious I’ve been.

“That whole month leading up was just trying to give everything at training or tournaments. Just so anxious… at the same time, you’ve got to focus on what’s in your control.

“I was sitting there… (coach Tomasi Cama) is just talking about the season and I’m just sitting there, ‘Oh here we go.’ Telling me how good I’d done but I didn’t think I’d made it.

“When he said congrats, I was speechless, to be honest. I was speechless. I kept saying thank you to them, I didn’t know what to say.”

The New Zealand men’s team are searching for their first Olympic gold, but after a strong finish to the SVNS Series season, they’ll truly believe they can make history from July 24 to 27 at Stade de France.

After a fairly disappointing start to the campaign which saw them miss the quarter-finals at the 12-team SVNS Perth, the Kiwis rallied with a second-place finish in Vancouver before taking out Cup finals in Hong Kong China and Singapore.

“That’s our goal… but we’ve got to take care of the present,” Cook-Savage said when asked about winning gold at the Paris Games.

But it’s not everything.

“Win, lose, whatever, at the end of the day this is the Olympics.

“Any time we put on the jersey, whether it be Olympics or World Series or a pre-season tournament, it’s a black jersey and you give everything it demands from you.

“It’s our last tourney of the season and it’s one to celebrate, hopefully.”