Born: November 4, 1966
Test record: 1 Test (1993) – 0 points
Tours: 1993 tour of Britain and France

Veteran Wellington forward Robert Piva broke into the Kiwis for the 1993 tour of Britain and France.

Piva represented the Junior Kiwis and debuted for Wellington in 1986 while playing for the St George club in the WRL competition. Switching to Randwick in 1988, he turned out for Wellington against Great Britain in 1988 and 1990, and Australia in a World Cup final warm-up match in 1988.

Linking with Porirua City in 1991, the provincial stalwart was a bolter in Howie Tamati’s 1993 Kiwis squad. He debuted in the tour opener against Wales – a 24-19 win in Swansea retrospectively given Test status – and played in the next six non-Test fixtures against Bradford Northern, Wigan, Castleford, St Helens, Leeds and Great Britain Under-21s.

But a fractured eye-socket suffered in the latter match brought the 27-year-old’s tour to a premature end.

Piva played for Taranaki Rockets in the inaugural 1994 Lion Red Cup, spent the following off-season with Wakefield Trinity and made nine top-grade appearances in North Queensland Cowboys’ foundation 1995 season.

Chosen in Western Samoa’s 1995 World Cup squad, the giant prop did not play any matches at the tournament but subsequently featured in the island nation’s Super League World Nines campaign in the 1996 pre-season.

Piva later played for Porirua Pumas in the 2001 Bartercard Cup.