Josh Matavesi

When 17-year-old local boy Josh Matavesi made his debut for Camborne, few expected it to lead to a career featuring two Rugby World Cups for Fiji, and playing for some of the most iconic clubs in Europe, before returning to exactly the same place where it all began, some fifteen years later.

Joel Matavesi was downstairs when his dad collapsed. “He just heard a massive bang – Dad had fallen down in the shower,” explains Josh, recounting his youngest brother’s story. “And obviously, Dad is a huge bloke, he’s 6ft 5in, twenty stone – I think Joel thought he’d come down through the roof!”

The fall was the result of a growing pre-existing condition. “My dad has diabetes, and he is quite prone to infections,” continues Josh, explaining the moment five years ago. “He used to work on the roads, digging up the roads and stuff like that, pretty hard work, and he was prone to getting internal cysts.

“After the fall, they took him for a scan and found he had cysts on his spinal cord that they had to operate on, which meant cutting through the spinal cord.”

The operation saved his life, as infection could have killed him, but it left him paralysed from the chest down. “He’s in bed at the moment,” says Josh. “Because he’s had some problems with bed sores, and the recovery has been really long. It’s been monotonous for him, because he really wants to get out because Camborne [rugby] is literally thirty seconds down the road from him. The last few times he has tried to rush getting back to watch the rugby, it’s ended up setting him back.

“He still has some movement in his fingers, but because of the work he used to do work in the tin mines, he has arthritis in his fingers, so they’re starting to seize up – he can use a fork though, and launch himself on the iPad. 

“Even though he’s paralysed, the great thing about my old man is that his mind is great, his brain is awesome, he can still talk, so we haven’t really lost him like that, he knows what’s going on.”

And so Josh knew exactly what it meant to his dad, when he told him he was bringing his professional career to a close, and returning to Cornwall. “When I told him that I was done, he asked me what I was going to do, and I said I was coming back and playing for Camborne. His face just lit up, so that justified coming back for me.”

There surely can’t be much sterner stuff than the heart strings that tie Josh, or any of the Matavesis for that matter, to their beloved Cornwall. Or rather, more specifically, Camborne their home town, which is little more than a scuffed clearance kick from the Duchy’s northern coast. “Any chance that we got when we were away, we’d always come back,” explains Josh. “Even when I was at Bath, we actually lived in Cornwall and I would do a three-hour commute, but I loved it. I love being at home.”

Dad Sireli started it all. After playing Camborne on a rugby tour with Fiji Barbarians in the 1980s, the club sorted him a job in the mines, he met and later married local girl Karen, and then the coconut farmer from a remote Fijian island set about creating a Cornish-Fijian legacy. Josh, now 32, was the first cab off the rank, followed by younger brother Sam, 31, and Joel 27. 

Josh also followed suit and married a Cornish girl, Anna, and together with their two children Lei’Lani, 11, and Masina, 8, they’ve traversed the rugby world, taking in Exeter, Paris, Worcester, Wales, Newcastle, Bath and Japan along the way. 

And now they’re back home, permanently this time, and Josh is finishing his playing career where it started, at Camborne RFC. He played minis here, and made his first team debut here as a teenager, while already on the books of Exeter as part of the national academy in Truro. 

Retiring from full-time is a decision that seems to rest easy on the shoulders of Josh. “They’ve sacrificed so much for me,” says Josh of his family. “You know, my wife, she’s put her career, everything, on hold to look after the kids. And whenever I’ve moved here or there, they’ve come with me so every two or three years, they have to uproot themselves, find another group of friends. 

“It just came to the point when I thought, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this anymore’, it was getting too much. It would have probably meant another move to another team in Japan, which would mean another move for the kids, so I thought I might just knock this on the head.”

Similar to other players, and perhaps a growing trend in the ever-arduous world of professional rugby, missing out on family life when they – and you – are still young, was uppermost in Josh’s thoughts. “When you play professional rugby, you come home, and you’re thinking about your next meal, you’re thinking about watching training, doing your stretches  and, before you know it, the kids are in bed. 

“I didn’t want to keep missing the small things, like walking them to school, sitting down with them to have breakfast, reading them stories at night, they’re small things to some people, but I’ve not been able to do them. 

“As I’ve got older, my priorities have changed, and I want to be present here with my kids.”

Such is Josh’s career timeline, starting before he’d even left college, you wouldn’t be surprised if he told you he was 42, let alone 32. “I could still play [top level] if I wanted to,” he says, “but I don’t want to be that guy, walking sideways down the stairs because I was trying to get that next contract. 

“I’m pretty healthy,” says Josh. “I’m playing National League rugby with my local team and I’m happy about the fact the minis and juniors and the people that watch Camborne are going to see a good version of me. I’m still in my prime, this isn’t me playing in later life with them saying, ‘oh, he used to be good’. I’m only 32, so I could still bang with the big boys.”

The weekend before we meet, he made his debut in a friendly away at St Austell. Starting at 13, he switched to ten, and hit nine conversions in an eleven-try romp for his newly promoted National Two West [level four] side. “I’m so excited, I’ve got butterflies,” he says. “The league season starts this week, and I’ve not been this excited for ages.

“It’s been so good, I love it,” he says of his new rugby life. “I love the fact that you finish training and you have a few pints – that’s right up my street. I’ve never really gone too far away from that, to be honest, so it’s nice. And my friends are here and just being back in the community has been awesome with everyone really excited for the season ahead.”

The Matavesi bond is one to be envied, always supporting each other and, with both Sam and Joel at Northampton, their careers have often crossed paths, giving Josh some of his proudest moments. “When me and Sam played together in the [2019] World Cup, to share that journey with him in Japan, was amazing,” he says. “To share the field with him, go through the whole build up with him, especially coming from where we’re have – having two players from your town go to the World Cup was pretty special.”

And although five years his senior, Josh also had a unique rugby moment with Joel. “I also got to play against Joel for his first cap for Newcastle in the Prem,” he says. “I was at Bath, so we got to have a good talk on the pitch before, it was special.”

Their strength has also come about through tragedy, having lost mum Karen when Josh was a teenager. “I was fourteen when we lost mum,” he says, “so we were really young. Sam was thirteen and then my younger brother Joel was eight or nine, so we’ve always been tight.  

“When that happened, the old man was working to put a roof over our heads,” continues Josh. “So, he’d be out the door by six in the morning, working on the roads, and wouldn’t get back until six at night. 

“He was making sure that me and Sam would work together to get Joel to school okay, because we would have to walk him, and Dad would leave his card behind or some cash for dinner. We had a tab at the fish and chip shop across the road and, one day, we took our friends there, about ten of us, and when Dad went to pay the tab there was £150 quid on it. Yeah, maybe we did abuse it a bit. But all this made the family quite tight, and the wider family too, we’d have fajitas on Tuesday nights at my auntie and uncles, so all the family chipped in to help us, it wasn’t just us.”

What happened to them, naturally, shaped them, perhaps reflected in the fact all three ended up in the world of professional sport. “That added bit of motivation,” says Josh. “I was pretty determined when I was younger that I wanted to be a professional rugby player, nobody was going to tell me otherwise, that’s probably where it came from. 

“And from that tragedy, me Sam and Joel and Dad’s relationship just got a lot tighter. We’re still best mates now, we used to fight a lot, but when we grew up I think you just get on don’t you?”

The family have been together recently in celebration, as they headed to Twickenham to witness Sam play a key role in Fiji’s stunning 30-22 defeat of England. 

Like Josh, who made his Fiji debut at nineteen, Sam was also capped at a young age by Fiji [22], winning three caps in the backrow in 2013, but then didn’t get a recall until he’d transitioned to hooker, in 2018. Naturally, the Fiji win meant a lot for the whole family. “It’s hard to put into words really,” says Josh. “I was going to say it’s one of the proudest moments I’ve had in the Fiji shirt but I wasn’t in the Fiji shirt! But just to be on the other side of it, to watch it as a fan, was fantastic. 

“I had more nerves during the game that I did when I played, because I couldn’t control anything, I had so many emotions.

“I would have actually loved to be involved in it,” he admits, “I would have probably still be celebrating now to be honest with you. 

“We were with the team,” he continues, “and it was great meeting up with old faces, with people still acknowledging you and valuing you was really nice. It was nice to take a step back from it all and just really enjoy it for what it is – and I didn’t have to worry about my prep or anything like that, so I could have a few beers and watch the game.”

The win was testament to the changes in the Fiji set-up, even since Josh won the last of his caps four years ago. “It just shows the value of having a Super Rugby team of Fijians [Fiji Drua joined in 2022],” says Josh. “Me and [ex-Fiji fly-half] Nicky Little were talking recently about how we used come into tour and it would be the foreigners – the ‘Western boys’ – grouped with the local boys, who were basically playing in amateur competition. 

“Then you’d go and play against France and Ireland, with ten full-time boys and five guys who’ve never been outside of Fiji and been exposed to professional rugby.” 

In days gone by, Fiji would compete, but eventually the professionalism of their rivals would come through. “What I was so pleased about was when it got to sixty minutes and, I’ve been in that position, and the boys are usually getting tired and standards slip – slipping off tackles, discipline goes... But this time, they actually got stronger. It was so nice to see England didn’t have an answer, they had to kick the ball. This was not the Fiji of old where opponents could kick it to the corner and bank on us being rubbish at the setpiece because now that area for Fiji is really good.”

Fiji wasn’t always the path Josh was set to take. “I was a huge England fan,” he admits. “I remember at school, just drawing pictures of Jonny Wilkinson in his kicking position because obviously wanted to be like them. 

“I was also in the junior national academy, I was like one of the youngest in the England under-20 set-up,” he continues. “Ben Young was in it too and these guys were like three years above me, whereas I was still at college in Truro – a little skinny fullback, 15 years old – and these guys were in full time academies.”

He never made the squad with England under-20s, but he didn’t have to wait long for an international call-up, getting called up for a November international against Scotland, just a month after his nineteenth birthday. The first of 24 caps, two Rugby World Cups, and 52 points, it gave him a chance to connect with his dad’s culture in a way he’d never have done otherwise. “We’d been there as kids to visit our family – Dad’s brother, mum and dad – but apart from that, I wouldn’t really have known much else about the country or the culture.

“I’ve now got to the point where I can kind of understand what they’re talking about and can get into a conversation with them.”

With the 32-hour flight not on the cards as a family – “definitely, not with young kids,” he says – he got to visit the land of his father and experience exactly what rugby passion is all about. “You feel like a rockstar when you’re over there,” he says. “Not just because they’re a small nation but because of how high they regard rugby.

“I’d never witnessed it until I went over there with Sam at the last Rugby World Cup,” continues Josh. “All these kids were asking for photographs or autographs, and Sam was like ‘fucking hell, how they do all know you? Have you done a sex tape here or something!?!’.

“I love the fact that this Fiji team is doing stuff that’s never been done before,” says Josh. “Because it’s making people back home really believe in them, I would love to head back there after this campaign, they’re going to be treated like royalty.”

While he doesn’t regret hanging up his Fijian boots, he does miss the boys. “I don’t think anyone knows, unless you’re in it, how much fun it is to be in with the Fijian boys.

“It’s just the laughter, you wouldn’t think you’re on a test week,” he says. “On the bus, music is playing, you don’t think you’re playing a Test match, but then as soon as the boys cross the whitewash... 

“You know when someone says, ‘you can’t just switch it on’?” asks Josh. “Well, they can. I remember Dean Richards [at Newcastle] saying to us, there’s only one person who can just switch it on and that’s you, [Fijian wing] Niki Goneva. The rest of you, I need you to switch on now! I think it was only a Tuesday.”

While spending most of his career in the UK, Josh realised the Fiji way wasn’t for everyone. “The jersey presentation is a really big thing for us,” he says. “I’d go back to Bath after playing for Fiji and say to JJ [Jonathan Joseph] and Anthony Watson, ‘how were your jersey presentations?’. And they’d be like ‘what?’. 

“For Fiji, this is a big ceremony, loads of songs, everyone suited and booted, wearing big flowery shirts. It was massive for us on the Friday night before a Test, but for England, they’d maybe do something in a meeting room if someone got to fifty caps.”

Josh made friends wherever he went, helped by the fact he also brought instant success. “I was really lucky,” he says. “Pretty much every team I played for, bar Worcester, I made semi-finals in the first season I was there. First year at Newcastle, Ospreys, Bath, all semi-finals; in Japan I won the league; and with Exeter we got promotion. I’ve had really good starts.

“There’s been two relegations in there too – with Worcester and Newcastle – but, you know, highs and lows.”

Sometimes at both. “Newcastle [when they finished fourth] was probably one of my favourite times,” he says. “We didn’t have the best side on paper, to look at us you’d think we’d probably get smashed. But what we did was a lot of Polynesian boys with values and those were installed within the team. 

“It was so much fun off the pitch,” he continues. “Nili Latu would say, ‘barbecue at mine’ and the next thing you know not just Islanders but everyone was there, it was just one of those times. It was all the buses back from games too: Dean would say we’d fly to games because we needed to get there, but every game, we’d bus it back, it’s old school.”

Sometimes though, Josh admits, being so close to his home county, hasn’t always helped. At Exeter, although clearly showing the talent, he was told aged 20, he wasn’t having his contract renewed. “I was gutted,” he admits. “I was young, I was pretty naïve, I didn’t help myself. 

“It wasn’t just Rob [Baxter], I just made loads of wrong decisions. It just didn’t work, some things just don’t work do they?”

Could he have done things different? “Probably be way more professional,” he admits. “I was acting like I would do in Camborne, I’d probably have honed my craft a little bit more if I did it again. 

“But,” he surmises, “the lessons I learned from then have taken me all the way through my career.  I’ve always treated people with respect and I’ve always taken my craft seriously.”

“I owe Rob, Robin [Cowling, who ran the Truro academy] and Ricky [Pellow] a lot. And to be fair, Rob was always straight with me. 

“They told me pretty early on they weren’t going to re-sign me, and I’d already played for Fiji by then, which I think was also one of the factors why they didn’t want to re-sign me because I was on the pathway for England, but that meant I wasn’t a EQP [England Qualified Player] then...”

But, good things can come from bad, and those early caps with Fiji earnt him a move to Racing Metro who were in need of an international fly-half as a medical joker. “I’d played about two or three times at ten for Fiji,” says Josh. “So, it literally couldn’t have been better timing.”

From Racing, he went to Ospreys, where he played some of his best rugby.

He loved Wales just as much as he’s loved all his rugby, there are no regrets, he insists. Well, maybe one, which only surfaces after we discuss his love of pasties, and the fact Cornish life could well impact on his, ahem, match fitness. “It already has,” he laughs, which prompts another thought. “That’s probably the only regret of mine,” he continues. “I probably never played at my full potential. I was probably always overweight. I’d say I never really played at my true fighting weight.

“I wasn’t Rupeni Caucai [Caucaunibuca] overweight,” he quickly adds, referencing the legendary barrel-shaped winger who defied the rules of physics with his speed and size, “but it was literally just a kilo or two, you know what I mean? 

“Every couple of weeks I was always in fat club,” he continues. “Probably only the last World Cup 2019 I was my true fighting weight, when I was 100kilos bang on, that’s probably the fittest I’ve been. 

“But to be honest, my GPS stuff [where they track movement on pitch], didn’t change whether I was 112kgs or 118kgs, I was always up there with the other boys. I always felt like I could carry well and carry over people. But, also, I just love food...”

Almost as much as he loves his home. “I’ve always remembered where I’m from, which is really important to me,” he says. “My journey has always been with my friends as well, that’s been really important too, and I’ve always played rugby with a smile on my face.

“I’ve made sure that when we win, you know, I have a few beers and enjoy that win because it’s hard sometimes. I was at Worcester when we didn’t win for eighteen months. 

“I’ve been through that, I’ve done the relegation stuff and it really puts it into perspective when people lose their jobs. So, you’ve got to enjoy the wins, they’re tough to come by.”

Now the focus is on Camborne. He has a job in business development with a company owned by one of Camborne’s sponsors – Tony Chapman, the CEO of CLS and a former team-mate of his dad – and he’s also finding time to put back into the community. 

Despite the often glamourised view of Cornish life, the county has its struggles, and they’re close to home for Josh. “They did a documentary about the place I’m from in Camborne, Pengegon, because it was the second most deprived area in northern Europe,” he says Josh. “There’s not a lot going on since the mining obviously finished, it just diminished jobs, and it just breaks my heart going through where I’m from, because you see the have nots. 

“For me, my job is to show them sport as, not a way to get away from the place, but to say, ‘it doesn’t matter what situation you’re in, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, if you’re good, and you work hard, you’ve got a chance to do something’. That’s what rugby was for me.

“Although,” he adds, “when you’re younger you don’t actually know how bad it is until you come away. I didn’t. 

“I thought Camborne was the richest place on earth. We didn’t have a lot growing up, we barely made ends meet, but I wouldn’t have thought that, and we always had rugby, football, cricket... Obviously when I moved away and came back, I was a bit like, ‘ah, this place is pretty dangerous’.”

Investment by the likes of Chapman, is helping rugby make a positive difference around the town. “There’s a real good buzz around the club and I don’t think they’ve had it for a long time,” says Josh. “Especially as we’re
now in the same division as Redruth [just three miles up the road] for the first time in 32 years. It’s amazing, the buzz around both towns, even the county – they reckon the league game is going to be the biggest attendance outside of the Premiership.

“We love this place,” Josh adds, doting once again on his county. “I absolutely love where I’m from, it’s a special thing to be from Cornwall and from Camborne. 

“I was always going to come back to Camborne, to Cornwall. This is where we’re from, where we’ve got our roots. It’s special.” 

Story by Alex Mead

Pictures by  Henry Hunt

This extract was taken from issue 23 of Rugby.
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