Mikaele Ravalawa

Mikaele Ravalawa is a Fijian rugby footballer who plays as a winger or centre for the St George Illawarra Dragons in the National Rugby League (NRL) and Fiji at international level.

Mikaele Ravalawa
Personal information
Born (1997-11-09) 9 November 1997
Galoa Island, Fiji
Height184 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight93 kg (14 st 9 lb)
Playing information
PositionWing, Centre
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2019– St. George Illawarra 35 24 0 0 96
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2017– Fiji 1 0 0 0 0
As of 17 November 2020
Source: [1]

Background

Ravalawa was born in Galoa Island, Fiji.

Playing career

From Galoa Island, Ravalawa originally played rugby union and captained the Fijian Under-18's rugby sevens team.

He then joined Burnside High School on a scholarship as part of their international rugby programme. He played for the schools first XV and the Crusaders' Under-18 team.[2]

He then switched to rugby league after being spotted by Peter Mulholland, joining the Canberra Raiders in 2017 and played for their Holden Cup (Under-20s) team. That season, Ravalawa scored 12 tries in 22 games and won Canberra's under 20s player of the year award.[3]

He was named in the Fiji squad for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.[4][5]

Ravalawa joined the St. George Illawarra Dragons and made 19 appearances for St George Illawarra during the 2019 NRL season and finished as the club's top try scorer and has become a crowd favourite at Kogarah and WIN Stadium.[6]

In 2020, Ravalawa was awarded a penalty try in the Dragons' first match of the season against the Wests Tigers. In that match, he injured his thigh, meaning he couldn't finish the match and play the next week.[7] In June 2020, Ravalawa re-signed with the club on a three-year deal, keeping him at the Dragons until at least the end of the 2023 season.[8] He ended the season as the club's tied top try-scorer alongside Zac Lomax and Matthew Dufty, scoring 13 tries in the process.[9]

References
  1. "Mikaele Ravalawa - Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  2. Egan, Brendon (19 July 2016). "Burnside High duo impressing for plucky overachievers". Stuff. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  3. Helmers, Caden (9 October 2017). "Mikaele Ravalawa chasing a dream with nothing more than a backpack". The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  4. Baleilevuka, Rusiate (9 October 2017). "Ravalawa still in shock after being named in Fiji Bati squad for RLWC". Fijivillage. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  5. Helmers, Caden (7 October 2017). "Canberra Raiders young gun Mikaele Ravalawa named in Fiji's World Cup squad". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  6. Chisholm, Ed (2 September 2019). "Paul McGregor facing the axe as St. George Illawarra Dragons coach following horror season". Sporting News. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019.
  7. Walter, Brad (15 March 2020). "Benji brilliant as Tigers down dropsy Dragons". National Rugby League. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  8. O'Loughlin, Liam (18 June 2020). "Dragons re-sign Fijian international Mikaele Ravalawa on three-year deal". Sporting News. Archived from the original on 24 August 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  9. "Stats - Players (Tries)". National Rugby League. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.