Matt Faddes (born 6 November 1991) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

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 who currently plays as a

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 ...

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 ...

or fullback for

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

Early career

Born in the town of Balclutha, located halfway between

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

and

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

on New Zealand's South Island, Faddes was educated at South Otago High School in his hometown.

Professional career

Faddes first played provincial rugby for Otago in

2011 ITM Cup The 2011 ITM Cup season was the sixth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on July 14, when Otago (National Provincial Championship), Otago hosted North Harbour ...

, debuting against . He made two appearances in total in 2011 and two more the following year before playing 7 times and scoring 2 tries in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

to help the Razorbacks finish 2nd on the Championship log and reach the playoff semi-finals where his 12th minute try was unable to stop them from bowing out 24-29 at home to . He only saw action once in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, but in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

his career in the 15-man game really began to take off. Having previously played mostly as an outside back, he largely featured as a centre for Otago in 2015 and it was a move that paid off with him scoring 6 tries in 10 games as they reached the Championship playoffs before being comprehensively defeated by . He continued to be a key player for the Razorbacks in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, contributing 3 tries in 11 games as the men from Dunedin topped the Championship standings before surprisingly losing at home by in the play off final, a defeat which consigned them to another season of Championship rugby in 2017. Following the unfortunate defeat Faddes decided to try his hand at a different field, Accounting at the University of Otago.

Super Rugby

Excellent showings in the midfield for Otago during the 2015 ITM Cup saw Faddes earn a Super Rugby contract with the Dunedin-based ahead of the 2016 season. He made a dream start to life as a Super Rugby player scoring 10 tries in 16 games, including a hat-trick against the which put him second, behind

Israel Folau Israel ‘Isileli Folau (; born 3 April 1989) is a professional dual-code rugby player who plays as a fullback for Japan Rugby League One club Urayasu D-Rocks. Born in Australia, he represents Tonga at international level after qualifying ...

of the in the try scoring charts. His side, the Highlanders, were defending Super Rugby champions in 2016, however they were unable to hold on to their title and were eliminated by the in the semi-finals, losing 42-30 with Faddes' 48th minute try scored in vain. Tony Brown replaced the -bound

Jamie Joseph James Whitinui Joseph (born 21 November 1969) is a New Zealand-born Japanese former rugby union player and current rugby union coach. A flanker, Joseph represented Otago at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, ...

as Highlanders head coach ahead of the 2017 season and having worked with Faddes at provincial level, he retained him in the squad for his first year in charge.

Move to Ulster

Faddes moved to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

to join

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 ...

ahead of the 2019–20 season, and has played both in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

and

European Rugby Champions Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pr ...

. Faddes returned to Otago in 2021.

International

Faddes was an All Blacks Sevens representative in

, helping them to victory in the

2013 London Sevens The 2013 London Sevens was the seventh edition of the rugby union tournament and the final stage of the 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series and was hosted at Twickenham Stadium in London, England. Format The teams were divided into pools of four t ...

and playing in 3 competitions in total throughout the season. On 5 November 2016, Faddes featured in the number 14 jersey for the

Barbarians A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

in their 31-31 draw against at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. He was replaced by Australian Luke Morahan in the 51st minute of the match.

Career honours

All Blacks Sevens *

IRB Sevens World Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Super Rugby statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faddes, Matt 1991 births Living people Barbarian F.C. players Expatriate rugby union players in Northern Ireland Highlanders (rugby union) players Male rugby sevens players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Northern Ireland New Zealand international rugby sevens players New Zealand rugby union players North Otago rugby union players Otago rugby union players People educated at South Otago High School Rugby union centres Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union players from Balclutha, New Zealand Rugby union wings Ulster Rugby players