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H e has an attention-grabbing tattoo on his lefinner arm, a beauti ul Samoan woman. Tis ismy mother when she was young, he condes.Tese hibiscus owers, theyre my grandmothers a-

vourite ower. His tattoos pay tribute to his amily, hisather is urther up his arm. Tese guys are the reasonwhy were here, me and Julz, they mean a lot to us. Hewont let these tattoos be photographed, but the one onhis neck staunchly Savea is ofen shot.

Te other Savea Julian in the 11 jersey recentlygot a hat trick or the All Blacks thumping third testwin over England. Its always good to see one o yoursiblings doing well. Growing up you have that rivalrybut you grow out o that. Weve always had our rivalriesbut I guess thats made us who we are now. Weve beensuccess ul in our own ways. Julz has come a long wayand its good to have him as a bro and seeing him do re-ally well. Im hope ully trying to ollow in his ootsteps.

Likeable and earthy, Ardies a major talent. He hasplayed in the Sevens, Junior All Blacks, and Welling-ton Lions and was a star o the 2013 I M Cup, whichrecommences in August.

His strength, speed, dynamism and thoroughnessaugur well. I love running off the ball. I reckon its justdoing the little things right. Im ocussing on quality tack-les and my clean-ups around the break-down atthe moment.

Currently weighing in at 100kgs (and standing188cms), the 20-year-old loves playing in South A ricawith the Canes. Beauti ul people, beauti ul places. Teplayers are ginormous, very physical. Tats one o my

work-ons: get physically good, bigger, so I can play the

game at the Super level. Super level is a way different levelthan I M.

Te sel -described baby o the team already hasseventeen Canes caps. Hurricanes Captain Conrad

Smith says Ardie will command the yellow 7 jersey.Great dude, big potential. Hell play a lot o games orthe Hurricanes, I think. Hes reakishly power ul and

ast or his age and size.Masina and Lina Saveas sons passion or rugby is

intense, like their passion or their amily. Ardie used togo sleep on Friday in his rugby kit, and at least once inhis rugby boots. I think my dad over-exaggerated that,Ardie laughs. I was always looking orward to playing.I always chucked my uni orm on. I was one o thoseones who couldnt sleep because I was so excited aboutplaying. Id wake up, its only two oclock in the morn-ing, back to sleep, wake up at our oclock. Every time Iwoke up Id move the curtain to see i it was raining ornot, because when its raining games are [sometimes]cancelled; so I was hoping that wouldnt happen. Everytime the game got cancelled, urgh! Id orce my Dad togo down to the park and double check.

Tis was quite an effort, as the Savea amily didnthave a car as the boys grew up. We walked every-where. We grew up over the hill in Berhampore. Ourclub was in Miramar so it was two bus trips or wedwalk to Newtown and bus rom Newtown to Miramar.Everywhere we went either walked or bussed untilJulz got his rst Super Rugby contract, thats when webought a second-hand car.

It was good or tness. It kept us active. Even

though me and Julz always threw paddies because we

WRITTEN BY ALEXANDER BISLEY | PHOTO BY ASHLEY CHURCH

THE BABYHURRICANE

Ardie Saveas massive, muscular arms are ormidable. Te open side ankers sitting next to me at

Hurricanes training HQ in Newtown.

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had to walk everywhere. I games were cancelled, Ardiethrew the meanest sook. I was quite gutted.

Tree years his junior, Ardie was playing under tenswhile Julian played under thirteens. My game would beearlier so Id play my game and Id quickly run over to hisgame to see i they were short on numbers to try and play

or them. Sometimes I got on.Wellingtons Eastern Suburbs have always been a special

place or the ormer Rongotai College head pre ect. Bornand bred here. Were quite close with my grandmother andmy granddad and they lived in Kilbirnie. So we were alwaysthere with all the amily. Mums got about seven sisters andtwo brothers, all with a minimum o two kids. All residing inMiramar and Strathmore. Sundays or every Saturday we seeeach other when we watch club rugby cos everyones downthere supporting. All into rugby. Uncles played rugby, cousins

playing rugby. Our amilys sport based so its quite cool.Te brothers have always been into amboyant dancing,too. We always used to have our battles, just to entertainthe amily. Quite competitive us two, we wouldnt let any-one have the last say, so it carried on. As weve been olderJules has stuck to the dancing scene, while Ive just laid backa little bit. I dont think hes done a celebration this year yet;I still love to have a dance now and then.

Last year, Ardie captained the Junior All Blacks at theJunior World Cup, under Chris Boyd, the incoming Hur-ricanes head coach. Obviously we didnt get the result,not winning it, but I really think that it was a big learningcurve. It was the best experience leading the team out.

Leading the haka, drawing on its power and tradition,was invigorating. Its always good doing the haka, especial-ly when youre doing it or your country. Its indescribable,but just to have all your brothers behind you actually givingthe challenge out to the other team is pretty awesome.

Te Saveas are now living together in Julians Kilbirniehome. Julz has been staying there or a while but wemoved in last year Mum, Dad and me. Julz took us in, helaughs amiably again.

Fashion is another shared passion. Te brothers areinvestigating setting up a menswear line. We dont knowwhether to start it or join another clothing company thatsponsors with rugby. Te hardest thing is that we have no

study qualications in ashion. Its just something we like, soits quite hard. We work with some o the people that are here[Hurricanes development staff] that help us. Its a slow process,because were so busy with rugby and stuff.

Being able to afford some sharp threads is another bonus oa Super Rugby contract. I do like to look good when I go out.

Savea is outgoing and lively. I like to socialise with peopleand stuff like that. He describes the amily sense o humouras dry. In a amily television interview Ardie is seen askingMum, can you stop telling these embarrassing stories?Yeah, he recalls. She knows everything. Te mothers knoweverything about us.

Ardie describes the current black number 7 Richie McCawas a a legend in the game. What hes done with the 7 jerseyhas raised the bar so high. Ardie gestures voluptuously withthose big arms, raising them towards the heavens. Its a good

challenge and itll be good to try and play against.Ardie has been mentioned as a strong shot at replacingRichie McCaw when the time comes. Characteristically guardedAll Blacks Coach Steve Hansen cited him as huge potentialand took him as the apprentice on the 2013 end o year tour.

Tat was a pretty overwhelming experience. Being apart o everything, being a part o the team and the envi-ronment was quite special; makes me want to be in thereproperly. But I guess that will take time. Watching howeverything processes and what goes on to be the best in theworld, it was quite remarkable. I did everything except play training, everything.

He must have picked up a bit rom McCaw, doing that?Mainly just learnt off him through watching him. Didntreally get a chance to talk much. But yeah when I did talkto him, genuine guy, a nice guy. Its pretty surreal actually,watching him when I was little and now being next to himhaving a chat.

As we nish the Canes media manager Hannah comesover with a jersey. Can you please sign this, Ardie? Its or

aika [Waititi], hes obsessed with you.

Ardie Savea will be playing at 7 or theWellington Lions through the I M Cup.