Eddie Aholelei (born 3 December 1981) is a retired professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

footballer. His regular playing position is

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Early career

Aholelei is of

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

n descent. He was born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

but grew up in Tonga most of his life with his parents and 4 brothers and represented Tonga at Under 19 World Cup 2000 in France. Aholelei moved to Sydney, Australia after high school and joined the Manly Marlins rugby club colts in 2001. Twelve seasons later, Aholelei played his 200th grade game for Manly against Parramatta in Round 9 of the 2012

Shute Shield The Shute Shield is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end ...

and played 135 games in 1st grade . He also represented the Australian Barbarians twice.

Club career

Aholelei joined the Melbourne Rebels extended playing squad in 2011. He made his first appearance for the Melbourne Rebels vs Bath Rugby Football Club on their 2011 UK tour. In Round 8 2012 he made his Super Rugby debut off the bench against the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

and went on to join the full squad in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

. On 14 July 2014, Aholelei made his move to England to join

London Welsh London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seaso ...

who competed in the Aviva Premiership from the 2014–15 season. He appeared 45 times for London Welsh between 2014 and 2016 in both the Aviva Premiership and RFU championships competition. In July 2016, he moved to the Romanian SuperLiga champions

Timișoara Saracens ), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor) , image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg , map_caption = Location in Timiș County , pushpin_map = Romania#Europe , pushpin_ ...

. He also helped the club to win the Supa liga Champion for the second time in a row.

Charity (Youth in Union)

In 2015 he founded the charity “Youth in Union” (Nonprofit Organisation) to help youth through education and sports in his home country Tonga.

References

External links

Rebels profile
Living people 1981 births New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union props Melbourne Rebels players New Zealand emigrants to Australia New Zealand sportspeople of Tongan descent Tonga international rugby union players London Welsh RFC players Expatriate rugby union players in England Rugby union players from Auckland New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate rugby union players in Romania SCM Rugby Timișoara players Tongan rugby union players {{Australia-rugbyunion-bio-stub