Inoke Afeaki (born 12 July 1973 in Tofoa, Tongatapu) is a

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 former

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, coach and administrator. He has played professionally in New Zealand, Japan, Wales, France and Tonga, and coached in France, New Zealand and Singapore. His usual playing position was at lock.

Career

Afeaki has played for the

Wellington Lions The Wellington Rugby Football Union (known as the Wellington Lions for competition reasons) are a New Zealand governing body of rugby union in the New Zealand province of Wellington Region. The main stadium is Sky Stadium (formerly named West ...

in the

National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to: * National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides * National Provincial Championship (2006–present) The National Provincial Championship, o ...

, the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

in the international Super 14 competition,

Secom Secom Co., Ltd. (Japanese: セコム株式会社, ''Sekomu kabushikigaisha'') is a Japanese security company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It has operations in Japan, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand ...

and

Ricoh is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational imaging and electronics company (law), company. It was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Riken, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) known as the ''Riken ...

in Japan before joining the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

in Wales. He represented

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

in the French

Pro D2 Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was in ...

. He captained

at the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

. He signed for Saint Etienne in 2009. In 1986-90, he attended St Bernard's College in Wellington, in 1991 and 1992 he played for the Wellington under 19 and 21 teams respectively. He played for Petone from 1992 through to 1999, and the Wellington Lions from 1993–96 and again from 1999-01. He made his Super 12 debut for the Hurricanes in 1996, in the first season. He played in Japan from 1997–98, then returned to the Hurricanes from 1999 to 2001. He went back to Japan in 2002 and played there until 2005.

International career

He made his debut for Tonga on May 26, 1995 in a match against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, coming on as a replacement in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

during the

1995 Rugby World Cup The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in Sou ...

. He also played in two other matches during the tournament, in the starting line-up, against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

and Côte d'Ivoire. He next played for Tonga in November 2001 when he started against Scotland at Murrayfield Stadium. He captained them in their next match against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, in which he scored a

try Try or TRY may refer to: Music Albums * ''Try!'', an album by the John Mayer Trio * ''Try'' (Bebo Norman album) (2014) Songs * "Try" (Blue Rodeo song) (1987) * "Try" (Colbie Caillat song) (2014) * "Try" (Nelly Furtado song) (2004) * " Try (Ju ...

. He retained the captaincy for the following season and played four matches for Tonga in 2002. Following captaining them in a number of internationals in 2003, he then led Tonga at the

in Australia. In 2004 he was the captain of the

Pacific Islanders rugby union team The Pacific Islanders was a combined international rugby union team that played from 2004 to 2008. It represented Fiji, Samoa and Tonga; Niue and the Cook Islands also supplied players to the squad for their tour in 2004. The team did not play at R ...

that played a series of matches against southern nations. In an incident during the match against Côte d’Ivoire he tackled Max Brito, an ivoirian player, who was seriously injured and remain paralyzed ever since. Afeaki was coach and technical director at Singapore Rugby Union from 2012 to 2017, before taking sports administration positions in Tonga.

Personal life

Afeaki's family moved from Tonga to

Petone Petone (Māori: ''Pito-one''), a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. The Māori name means "end of the sand beach". Europeans first settled in P ...

when he was three. He now lives in Wellington and works as a site logistics controller for construction company McKee Fehl. Afeaki is married to Kanoko, who is Japanese. The couple has two sons. He became a New Zealand citizen in 2022 and is contesting election to the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

References

External links

Inoke Afeaki
on teivovo.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Afeaki, Inoke 1973 births Living people Rugby union locks Tongan rugby union players Scarlets players Black Rams Tokyo players Wellington rugby union players Hurricanes (rugby union) players FC Grenoble players Rugby union players from Tongatapu Tonga international rugby union players Pacific Islanders rugby union players Tongan expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in France Expatriate rugby union players in New Zealand Expatriate rugby union players in Japan Tongan expatriate sportspeople in Japan Tongan expatriate sportspeople in France Tongan expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand People educated at St Bernard's College, Lower Hutt