Hame Faiva

Epalahame Faiva (born 9 May 1994) is a New Zealand-born Italian rugby union player who plays as a hooker for Bath Rugby in Gallagher Premiership.

Born and raised in Auckland, Faiva attended Wesley College in the city and while there played for the Eden Rugby Club before later trying out rugby league. During his time at Wesley College, he also played representative rugby for Counties Manukau before shifting south to Waikato where he was a member of their academy and also played under-20 rugby.

Faiva made his senior debut for Waikato in a Ranfurly Shield defense against Heartland Championship side Horowhenua-Kapiti in July 2013, aged just 19. He made his national provincial championship bow later in the year, but that was to be his sole appearance at that level in 2013. The following year brought more game time as he played 8 times and scored 2 tries as he began to establish himself as the Mooloo's first choice in the number 2 jersey. He subsequently played all 20 of Waikato's Premiership matches across the 2015 and 2016 seasons, 17 of these appearances came from the start and he also added 2 tries to his career total. From 2013 to 2017, he played for Waikato in the Mitre 10 Cup.

Several seasons of solid performances at provincial level were rewarded when he was named in the Blues squad ahead of the 2017 Super Rugby season.

On 13 November 2017, Fava leaves home to sign for Italy team Benetton in the Pro14 from the 2017–18 season. He played with Benetton until 2021−2022 season.

He recently played for Worcester Warriors in Premiership Rugby but had his contracted terminated along with every other Warriors player on 5 October 2022.

In March 2023 he was named in Hurricanes squad for Round 5 of 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season. He played with Super Rugby franchise until the end of the season.

On 17 November 2023, Faiva was signed by English side Bath with immediate effect on a undisclosed length deal, back in the Premiership Rugby.