Chanel Harris-Tavita (born 3 April 1999) is a

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

n international

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who plays as a or for the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

(NRL).

Background

Harris-Tavita was born in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

and is of Samoan descent. His grandfather Ray Harris represented New Zealand Maori and Auckland.

Playing career

2016-2018

A clever ball player, he was named the New Zealand Warriors 2017 NYC player of the year. Harris-Tavita made his NYC debut on his 17th birthday in 2016 and, after two seasons in the under-20 grade, was moved up to develop his game in the Intrust Super Premiership in 2018.

2019-2020

In round 4 of the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

, Harris-Tavita made his

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

debut against the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership, Australia's elite rugby league competition. Since 2008, the ...

. He was viewed as

Shaun Johnson Shaun Ly Johnson (born 9 September 1990) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a for the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League and New Zealand national rugby league team, New Zealand at in ...

long term replacement, who signed with the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Sutherland Shire of Southern Sydney, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. Cronulla compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugb ...

in late 2018. He made 13 appearances for the

in both of the 2019 and 2020 seasons as the club missed out on the finals.

2021

In round 9 of the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

, he scored two tries in a 38-32 loss against Manly-Warringah. He made a total of 11 appearances for the club which saw New Zealand once again miss out on the finals.

2022

Following New Zealand's record 70-10 loss to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in round 8 of the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season was the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest ...

, it was revealed that Harris-Tavita suffered a ruptured testicle during the game which required surgery. Harris-Tavita was then ruled out from playing indefinitely. In May 2022, Harris-Tavita announced he was taking a hiatus from rugby league at the end of the season. Harris-Tavita cited that he had lost the passion for playing the game and was going to spend his time traveling and writing. In October Harris-Tavita was named in the Samoa squad for the

2021 Rugby League World Cup The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received � ...

. Harris-Tavita played for Samoa in their Rugby League World Cup final loss to Australia. During the second half, Harris-Tavita was knocked out after being hit in the head by Australia's Angus Crichton. Harris-Tavita played no further part in the match.

2023

After the World Cup the previous year, Harris-Tavita travelled Europe as part of his hiatus from rugby league. In May 2023, it was announced Harris-Tavita would return to the New Zealand Warriors, signing a two-year deal from 2024.

2024

He played 17 games for the New Zealand Warriors in the

2024 NRL season The 2024 NRL season was the 117th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 27th season run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The season consisted of 27 competition rounds, followed by a finals series contested by the top eight ...

which saw the club finish 13th on the table. On 15 October 2024, it was announced that Harris-Tavita would re-sign with the club for another 2 years.

Statistics

References

External links

New Zealand Warriors profileSamoa profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris-Tavita, Chanel 1999 births Living people New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand Māori rugby league team players New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent New Zealand Warriors players Rugby league players from Auckland Rugby league halfbacks Samoa national rugby league team players Samoan rugby league players