Ratu Henry Vao'ofu Speight (born 24 March 1988) is a Fiji-born Australian professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He currently plays for the French club

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; also spelled ; ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. It is a luxu ...

. Speight was previously with the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inh ...

and

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

, and has represented Australia with the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

and national sevens team. He is currently playing for Wests in the

Queensland Premier Rugby Queensland Premier Rugby is a semi professional club rugby union competition in Queensland, Australia. Nine clubs play in the competition, eight clubs are from Brisbane, and one club is from Gold Coast.The premiership has been contested in i ...

competition. His playing position is

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Early life and career

Henry Speight is the son of Fijian politician Samisoni Tikoinasau and the grandson of former Fiji President,

Ratu ''Ratu'' () is an Austronesian title used by male Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, ''adi'' (pronounced ), is used by females of chiefly rank. In the Malay language, the title ''ratu'' is also the traditional honorific title to r ...

Josefa Iloilo '' Ratu'' Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, (29 December 1920 – 6 February 2011) was a Fijian politician who served as the 3rd President of Fiji from 2000 until 2009 following the 2000 Fijian coup d'état, excluding a brief period from 5 ...

. He was born in

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

, Fiji, where he attended Queen Victoria School before moving to New Zealand for his final years of high school. His first taste of pro-rugby came in his final year at Hamilton Boys High School, when he was picked for Waikato, making his debut against the

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty () is a large bight (geography), bight along the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east. Called ''Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi'' (the Ocean ...

in 2008. Speight went on to represent the province over four seasons. Not eligible for the New Zealand Schoolboys, Speight represented his native Fiji in the same year at the Junior World Cup in Belfast.

Super Rugby and Australia

Speight made his Brumbies debut during the

2011 Super Rugby season The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16t ...

against the Chiefs in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. After becoming eligible for national selection, on 11 September 2014, Speight made his Wallabies debut during the 2014 Spring Tour against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. In early 2018 Speight signed with Australia for at least one more year, showing his dedication to Australian rugby despite offers of contracts by foreign clubs. After signing a short deal in late 2018 with

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

as a temporary replacement for the injured Louis Ludik, he returned to the Brumbies for the 2019 season before joining the

for the 2020 season. Speight's first game was against his old team, the Brumbies. He scored a try in that match to officially make him the only player to have scored tries against all 18 (current and former) super rugby teams. Speight then moved to France on a 3-year contract with

Biarritz Olympique Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (; ), usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Iparralde, Basque city of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine ...

. In 2024, Speight joined Wests for the

competition.

Super Rugby statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speight, Henry 1988 births Living people Fijian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Rugby union wings Biarritz Olympique players ACT Brumbies players Canberra Vikings players Waikato rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in France Fijian expatriate sportspeople in France Rugby union players from Suva People educated at Queen Victoria School (Fiji) People educated at Hamilton Boys' High School I-Taukei Fijian people Fijian people of British descent Ulster Rugby players Fijian expatriates in New Zealand Fijian expatriate rugby union players in Australia Naturalised citizens of Australia Fijian expatriate sportspeople in Northern Ireland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Northern Ireland Expatriate rugby union players in Northern Ireland Australian expatriate rugby union players Australian expatriate sportspeople in France Naturalised rugby union players 2015 Rugby World Cup players Queensland Reds players Rugby Football Club Los Angeles players 21st-century Fijian sportsmen