Kelly Meafua (16 October 1990 – 6 May 2022) was a Samoan

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 its m ...

player. His position of choice was

flanker Flanker may refer to: * Flanker (perfume), a newly created perfume sharing attributes of an existing one * Flanker (rugby union), a position in rugby union (not found in rugby league) * ''Su-27 Flanker'' (video game), a 1996 computer game modelin ...

Club career

Meafua moved to Auckland when he was 14 but did not start playing rugby until he joined Otahuhu at 20 years old. He played for both the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

under–21 and Auckland Sevens before moving to Sydney to play for West Harbour in the

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 ...

. Meafua then played for the Greater Sydney Rams and was part of the Waratahs extended training squad.

Professional career

In 2013 Meafua played for the Samoa sevens team in the

World Rugby Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

before in 2015 he moved to France to play for Narbonne 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 returned to France again in 2018, this time playing for

Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hos ...

in the Pro D2 before in 2020 he switched to

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, an ...

Personal life

Meafua was from the villages of Sala'ilua and Lalomauga and grew up in Samoa. On the 6 May 2022 while celebrating

final home game and a win over Narbonne, Meafua died after jumping off the Pont-Vieux bridge into the river Tarn.

References

External links

Player profile - All Rugby
1990 births 2022 deaths Samoan rugby union players US Montauban players Rugby union flankers Greater Sydney Rams players RC Narbonne players AS Béziers Hérault players Rugby union number eights Samoan expatriate rugby union players in France {{Samoa-rugbyunion-bio-stub