Lote Raikabula (born 31 July 1983 in

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...

, Fiji) is a

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 ...

rugby player who has played both

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 ...

and rugby sevens. He currently plays for the

All Blacks Sevens team The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record twelve World Rugby Sevens Series titles. The team has been o ...

in the

IRB Sevens World 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 ...

& is the Rugby coach for

Trinity College, Kandy "Look to the End" , mottoes = , founder = John Ireland Jones , established = , type = Independent Private , affiliation = Church of Ceylon, Anglican , grade ...

. He has played more than 60 tournaments since his debut in 2006, playing in 20 tournament-winning teams. he has five

medals, a

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...

title and two

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

gold medals. Raikabula has played

for both

Hawkes Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

and Manawatu in the

Air New Zealand Cup The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. Raikabula has won five IRB Sevens World Series medals, a Rugby World Cup Sevens title, and two Commonwealth Games gold medals. He played ten years for the New Zealand sevens team from 2006 - 2016, retiring from international rugby shortly before the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, at the age of 33.

Coaching

In November 2016 he was appointed as the head coach of Rugby at

Trinity College Kandy "Look to the End" , mottoes = , founder = John Ireland Jones , established = , type = Independent Private , affiliation = Church of Ceylon, Anglican , grade ...

, Sri Lanka. His services as the head coach of Rugby at Trinity College was discontinued effective from 2 June 2018. He is currently Head Coach of the Thailand Men's and Women’s 7s Team along with being Director of Rugby for the

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

Career highlights

* New Zealand Sevens 2006 - 2016 * Hawke's Bay 2006, 2007 * East Coast 2005 * Wellington Sevens 2002–2005 * Wellington Under 21 2003

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raikabula, Lote 1983 births New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand people of I-Taukei Fijian descent Rugby sevens players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Fijian emigrants to New Zealand Living people New Zealand international rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players of New Zealand Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players of Fiji Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games