Matavesi: We need to hit the ground running
NORTHAMPTON hooker Sam Matavesi wants normal service to be resumed after what has been “a weird year” in the Premiership and an unusual week all round.
Saints went into the two-month Premiership break flying high as league leaders and are using friendlies against Stormers and Sale, teams known for their physicality, to get them match ready for their first league game back, at Bristol on Friday March 22.
With an unprecedented number of players away at the Six Nations – Alex Coles, Fraser Dingwall, Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith and Tom Pearson - Matavesi says it is up to those on club duty to ensure they’re in a position to hit the ground running when they return.
It is something Saracens did so successfully when they dominated English rugby, and Saints must do the same if they are to realise their dreams of a first Premiership title in 10 years.
“It’s been quite a weird year, we have had such an unbelievable start, then had a big break, and now we have to get going again,” said the Fiji international.
“It’s like that for every other team but I think, for us in these next two games, the boys here have to drive that so that when the boys that have been away with England and Scotland (prop Elliot Millar Mills), who have been pretty massive in getting us there, come back in, we are where we want to be for that Bristol week.”
Normal service is something Cornishman Matavesi has become accustomed to since he signed an elite sports draft contract with the Royal Navy, which allows him to play professional rugby while still serving in the Armed Forces.
Technically, Matavesi is based out of HMS Temeraire, the sports hub of the Navy in Portsmouth but has never been required to go to sea – yet! Just this week the 32-yearold, who was promoted to the rank of Local Acting Leading Hand last August, got the shock of his life when an email marked ‘sensitive’ popped in his inbox.
“I was away with the Navy three weeks ago, for the week of the (Cornish) Pirates game, back in here for the full week last week and then back in this week for the Stormers game,” he revealed.
“This week I had an email from my boss, and the start of the email read, ‘Official, Sensitive, Personal’, and I was like, that’s not to do with rugby then! They needed someone in my rank and my job to go to sea in March. Fingers crossed, they find someone else!”
When Matavesi first started playing pro-fesearned sional rugby at the Pirates, he was still having to ask favours from his rugby-loving bosses to get time off and play.
Even during Rugby World Cup 2019, the first of two tournaments he has been involved in, reminders of his dual life were never far away. Now he can have a mini break away with his wife, to Madrid and London in Saints’ downtime, without fear of being hounded by either of his employers.
“I was allowed to be there (at the Japan RWC) but I didn’t have an elite sports draft so I didn’t have that cover. I was getting phone calls throughout the World Cup telling me I was out of date for my fitness tests and stuff like that, and I was thinking, ‘what is going on?’
“It is a lot easier under the terms of my contract; I have got to play two games a year for the Navy.
“Maybe two years ago, I was the only one with an elite sports draft in the Navy, now there’s five or six of us, which is incredible.”
Matavesi is scheduled to play against Marine Nationale on March 16, which means he will be unavailable for next weekend’s Sale friendly. But other than the Babcock Cup, if the Navy get to Twickenham, the rest of the season should be plain-sailing on the work front.
From a family point of view, though, it has been a difficult last six months. Matavesi’s father passed away while he was at the World Cup, between the pool stages and the quarter-final against England.
The former Exeter academy player, who joined Saints ahead of the 2019/20 season, understandably found it difficult to focus on rugby on his return to Franklin’s Gardens, and was thankful that Curtis Langdon and the club’s other hookers were there to step up.
“After the World Cup and the passing of my dad, my head probably wasn’t in it, so it was good to have someone like Curt around; he has been outstanding – him, Robbie Smith and Tom Cruse,” he said.
“I had a couple of weeks off for his funeral and then you’re straight back into it. My first game back was Leicester away. I am sitting there in front of 20,000 people and my head is everywhere.
“Having the depth of hooker we’ve got has been really good. We have four very unique hookers and it definitely helps. It makes every rep at the Saints, every scrum… everything we are involved in, a competition, which is only a good thing.”