Southland prop gets call from national selectors
From Verdon College first XV to the world stage. Southland prop gets New Zealand Under-20 call up.
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Southland prop Hunter Fahey has been called into the New Zealand Under-20 rugby squad as injury cover.
Fahey got the call at 8.30am on Wednesday telling him he was wanted in South Africa. By 2.30pm he was on a plane to make the trip to join the team at the World Under-20 Championship.
New Zealand’s next outing is against Australia at 11.55pm on Sunday night [NZ time].
Whether Fahey is whisked straight into the 23 is unsure, but whatever happens the call-up shows he is very much on the national radar and the experience will be another step forward in his development.
The big and mobile loosehead prop has not followed the well-worn path of a traditional rugby school.
He played all his secondary school rugby at Verdon College in Invercargill.
In Year 11 he missed out on the Southland Under-16 A team, and despite showing some promise in Year 12 and Year 13 wasn’t on the radar in terms of Highlanders under-18 camps.
But then came 2022, his first year attending university in Dunedin.
Fahey and his family are entrenched in the Marist Rugby Club in Invercargill and with the Dunedin Rugby Club Marist-affiliated he ended up at Shark Park.
Things started to happen.
He was a key figure in helping the club’s premier colts team go unbeaten to win its competition. By the end of the season, the teenage prop had been called in to make his premier club debut in Dunedin’s semifinal fixture.
Then came Otago under-19 selection and now Fahey and this year was a key figure in the Highlanders under-20 team at the national tournament in Taupo.
In March Fahey told The Southland Tribune he was proud of his journey. And that pride would have just ramped up with that SOS he received from the national selectors on Wednesday.
“The last year or two I’ve had quite a few opportunities come to me; it’s been good. I really enjoyed last year…. I’m quite proud of my journey.”
And so he should be.
“There are probably a lot of boys out there that don’t go to the big schools who probably think they have to, it’s good to show that you don’t always have to if you work hard enough.”
Fahey has linked back up with Southland this year as part of Rugby Southland’s Academy.
While being based in Dunedin, where he has been studying, he has thrown his lot in with his home province Southland and is set to line up in the maroon jersey at the national under-19 tournament this year.
During a recent university holiday break, Fahey started for Marist in their final Southland round-robin fixture and impressed.