Julian Savea

Julian Savea (born 7 August 1990) is a New Zealand rugby union player. He currently plays for the All Blacks (the New Zealand national team), the Hurricanes in Super Rugby, and the Wellington Lions in the mitre 10 cup. He has also represented New Zealand at sevens and at under-20 level. His position of choice is wing. Savea is nicknamed "The Bus", a moniker bestowed by under-20s coach Dave Rennie. He was a key member of 2015 Rugby World Cup winning team, and was the highest try scorer of the tournament, with 8 tries.

Savea attended Rongotai College in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2008, Savea made the New Zealand secondary schools team and the Hurricanes academy squad. In 2009, Savea debuted for the New Zealand sevens at the 2009 Adelaide Sevens. In 2010, Savea was selected for the New Zealand U-20 team to play at the 2010 IRB Junior World Championship in Argentina. He scored 8 tries in the tournament which New Zealand won and was named IRB Junior Player of the year. Savea was rewarded for his good form by being picked in the 2010 Wellington Lions squad to play in the 2010 ITM Cup. In 2010 Savea was touted as 'the next Jonah Lomu'.

Hurricanes

In 2012, Savea played in his second season for the Hurricanes. While he had a quiet 2011 season, his 2012 form earned him a callup into the All Blacks for the three-test series with Ireland.

Wellington Lions

He marked his first-class debut in July 2010 with a length of the field runaway try that clinched an ITM Cup pre-season win for the Wellington Lions over Canterbury. He started on the right wing in 12 of 14 ITM Cup games, scoring a further eight tries including a try on championship debut against Tasman and two more the following week against Otago.

All Blacks

Savea was named in the 2012 All Black squad, his first season of international rugby.

On 9 June 2012, Savea scored three tries on his debut for the All Blacks against Ireland in the first test at Eden Park. He is the first All Black to score three tries against Ireland in a test match, and just the fourth to score three tries on his All Black test debut. Since his debut, Savea has been one of the most prolific tryscorers in international rugby. In 2014, Savea was nominated for World Rugby's Player of the Year award, which was ultimately won by teammate Brodie Retallick.

Savea was named in the 31-man All Black squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where he scored 8 tries across the tournament having played in many games throughout the tournament. Savea's 8 tries saw him equal the record for most tries in a single tournament, previously achieved by Jonah Lomu and South Africa's Bryan Habana. Two of these games played saw Savea score hat-tricks, including a quarter-final game against France. Savea was again nominated for World Rugby's "Player of The Year" award which was won by teammate Dan Carter, and was also the winner of "Try of The Year" for one of his tries against France in the World Cup.

Savea is one of the all-time leading try scorers in World Rugby, currently ranked at 12 as of the Bledisole Cup series against Australia in 2016, where he became the fifth New Zealander to score 40 tries or more in international rugby, becoming the fastest to do so, scoring his 40th try in his 44th match, overtaking former All Black wing Joe Rokocoko who did so in his 46th test match.

Despite continuing to climb up in the record books through 2016, Savea did so seriously out of form. When Waisake Naholo was injury-free he would be selected over Savea as the starting left wing, with Israel Dagg on the right wing. Savea was also benched for the Hurricanes' last 3 matches of the season in the knockout rounds, with Jason Woodward, former All Black Cory Jane and Justin Marshall the team's preferred back three players by the end of the season. Savea continued to start internationally due to injuries to Naholo and Nehe Milner-Skudder, the latter of whom did not play internationally all year due to a shoulder reconstruction surgery.

International tries

Try	Opponent	Location	Venue	Competition	Date	Result
1, 2, 3	Ireland	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	Mid-year rugby test series	000000002012-06-09-00009 June 2012	Won
4	Argentina	Wellington, New Zealand	Westpac Stadium	Rugby Championship	000000002012-09-08-00008 September 2012	Won
5, 6	Argentina	La Plata, Argentina	Estadio Ciudad de La Plata	Rugby Championship	000000002012-09-29-000029 September 2012	Won
7, 8	Scotland	Edinburgh, Scotland	Murrayfield Stadium	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002012-11-11-000011 November 2012	Won
9, 10	Italy	Rome, Italy	Stadio Olimpico	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002012-11-17-000017 November 2012	Won
11, 12	England	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002012-12-01-00001 December 2012	Lost
13	France	Christchurch, New Zealand	AMI Stadium	Mid-year rugby test series	000000002013-06-15-000015 June 2013	Won
14	Argentina	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Rugby Championship	000000002013-09-07-00007 September 2013	Won
15	Argentina	La Plata, Argentina	Estadio Ciudad de La Plata	Rugby Championship	000000002013-09-29-000029 September 2013	Won
16	Australia	Dunedin, New Zealand	Forsyth Barr Stadium	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002013-10-19-000019 October 2013	Won
17, 18	England	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002013-11-16-000016 November 2013	Won
19	Ireland	Dublin, Ireland	Aviva Stadium	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002013-11-24-000024 November 2013	Won
20	England	Dunedin, New Zealand	Forsyth Barr Stadium	Mid-year rugby test series	000000002014-06-14-000014 June 2014	Won
21, 22, 23	England	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Mid-year rugby test series	000000002014-06-21-000021 June 2014	Won
24	Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	Rugby Championship	000000002014-08-23-000023 August 2014	Won
25, 26	Argentina	Napier, New Zealand	McLean Park	Rugby Championship	000000002014-09-06-00006 September 2014	Won
27	Argentina	La Plata, Argentina	Estadio Ciudad de La Plata	Rugby Championship	000000002014-09-27-000027 September 2014	Won
28, 29	United States	Chicago, USA	Soldier Field	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002014-11-02-00002 November 2014	Won
30	Wales	Cardiff, Wales	Millennium Stadium	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002014-11-23-000023 November 2014	Won
31, 32	Namibia	London, England	Olympic Park	2015 Rugby World Cup	000000002015-09-24-000024 September 2015	Won
33, 34, 35	Georgia	Cardiff, Wales	Millennium Stadium	2015 Rugby World Cup	000000002015-10-02-00002 October 2015	Won
36, 37, 38	France	Cardiff, Wales	Millennium Stadium	2015 Rugby World Cup	000000002015-10-17-000017 October 2015	Won
39	Wales	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	Mid-year rugby test series	000000002016-06-11-000011 June 2016	Won
40	Australia	Sydney, Australia	ANZ Stadium	Rugby Championship	000000002016-08-20-000020 August 2016	Won
41	Australia	Wellington, New Zealand	Westpac Stadium	Rugby Championship	000000002016-08-27-000027 August 2016	Won
42	Argentina	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Rugby Championship	000000002016-09-10-000010 September 2016	Won
43	South Africa	Christchurch, New Zealand	AMI Stadium	Rugby Championship	000000002016-09-17-000017 September 2016	Won
44, 45	Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	End-of-year rugby test series	000000002016-10-22-000022 October 2016	Won

New Zealand U20

Julian Savea was named the 2010 IRB Junior Player of the Year. He was the star of the IRB World U20 tournament, scoring eight tries in three games; he scored four tries in one match against Samoa, and two each against Wales and South Africa. Savea featured on the right wing for New Zealand in the 2010 World U20 tournament.

New Zealand Sevens

Savea debuted for the New Zealand Sevens team at the 2009 Dubai Sevens and went on to play in the Sevens tournaments at Hong Kong, Adelaide, London and Scotland.

Savea is of Samoan descent. His younger brother Ardie is also a Hurricanes and All Blacks player.

In April 2013 Savea was charged over a domestic violence incident involving his partner. The charges were later withdrawn after Savea completed police diversion. Savea had previously appeared on posters for an anti-domestic violence campaign, 'It's Not OK'.

In December 2015, Savea married his girlfriend of 3 years, Fatima.