On 7 August 2017, the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union announced that four players of that year's successful Hastings Boys' High School First XV side, including Folau Fakatava, had signed with the union for the 2018 and 2019 Mitre 10 Cup seasons. Fakatava made his debut against on 19 August 2018 and went on to play eight games that first season, mostly as a replacement for incumbent scrum-half Brad Weber. With Weber in the All Blacks squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the 2020 Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations, Fakatava established himself as the starting scrumhalf for the Magpies in the following seasons. In 2020, he was named the Mitre 10 Cup Player of the Year and awarded the Duane Monkley Medal. He is contracted to Hawke's Bay for 2020 and 2021.