Samisoni Viriviri Nasagavesi (born 25 April 1988) is a Fiji

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 ...

player. He played for the Fiji sevens team, and in 2014 won the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year award after leading the 2013-14 World Rugby Sevens Series in tries scored. He has signed with the French

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

club Montpellier.

Early career

Viriviri started his career playing in the local 7's competition. He chased a dream borne out of the stories of his grandfather and namesake who was part of the legendary 1977 Fiji XV that beat the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

in Suva. At 19, he broke into the club level for Dratabu in the Nadi Rugby Union club games and later played for Lomaiviti and Suva in 2010 before joining Nadroga. He played for the Police 7's side and he caught the eye of Fiji sevens assistant coach, Etuate Waqa and was selected as the backup winger to

Waisea Nayacalevu Waisea Nayacalevu Vuidravuwalu (born 26 June 1990) is a Fijian rugby union footballer. He plays wing for Fiji and Toulon in the Top 14 . Career Waisea, along with his brother, Avenisi Vasuinubu both played for Melbourne Rugby in the Victor ...

in the Fiji 7's side.

2012–present

He made his debut at the 2012 Gold Coast Sevens but did not make the cut for the Dubai and South Africa legs. He made a comeback in the 2013 Wellington Sevens and followed it up with an impressive effort in the

2013 USA Sevens The 2013 USA Sevens was the tenth edition of the USA Sevens tournament, and the fifth tournament of the 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series. The host stadium was the Sam Boyd Stadium in the Las Vegas-area community of Whitney, Nevada. South Africa ...

. His top performance and 8 tries at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

gave him the Best and Fairest Player Award. He ended the 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series with 29 tries. In January 2014, he signed with Top 14 club, Montpellier. He started the 2013–14 IRB Sevens World Series like he ended the last, he notched up 7 tries in the

2013 Dubai Sevens The 2013 Dubai Sevens was the second tournament within the 2013-2014 Sevens World Series. It was held over the weekend of 29–30 November 2013 at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Format The teams were drawn into four pools of ...

and he carried his performance to the 2013 South Africa Sevens scoring 6 tries. He became the top try scorer in Japan scoring 9 tries. He leads the season with 48 tries, 17 clear of nearest rival, NZ's, Tim Mikkelson. He was shortlisted as the 2014 IRB Sevens Player of the Year. He finished the season as the Top try-scorer with 52 tries. At the end of the

2014 London Sevens The 2014 London Sevens was the eighth and final tournament of the 2013–14 IRB Sevens World Series. This edition of the London Sevens was hosted at Twickenham Stadium in London, England. Format The sixteen teams competing were divided into four ...

, Viriviri was awarded the 2014

IRB Sevens Player of the Year The World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year is awarded by World Rugby each year. It was first awarded in 2004. The award is based in large part on the player’s performance over the course of the World Rugby Sevens Series, along with other Sevens to ...

, the first time a Fijian (playing for Fiji) has ever won that award. He was also named in the IRB 7s dream team of the season alongside NZ's DJ Forbes, Scott Curry, Australia's Cameron Clarke, Canadian duo

John Moonlight John Moonlight (born July 2, 1987) is a Canadian rugby union player for the Toronto Arrows Toronto Arrows R.F.C. is a rugby union club based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that plays in Major League Rugby. The Arrows team is an independent of ...

and

Phil Mack Phil Mack (born 18 September 1985 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a rugby union scrum-half who played for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby (MLR). He was the Seawolves head coach, winning an MLR Championship Shield in 2018. He also ...

as well as South Africa's

Justin Geduld Justin Gilberto Geduld (born 1 October 1993) is a South African rugby union player, currently contracted to SARU as a sevens rugby player, as well as playing domestic rugby union for . His regular position is centre. He was a member of the S ...

. He made his debut for Montpellier in the

2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage The 2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage was the first stage of the 20th season of European club rugby union, and the first to be organised under the new European Rugby Champions Cup format, which replaced the Heineken Cup as the t ...

on the left wing, he scored a try but was denied by the referee due to an incident earlier. But he did not score any try in six appearances in

and European Champions Cup. In 2015, he was sold off to ProD2 club,

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, ...

. He joined the Fiji 7's side in March 2016 and helped them win the

2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series The 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 17th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by ...

. He made the final 28-man squad for the Fiji 15's team for the 2016 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup.

References

External links

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Samisoni Viriviri
at Ultimate Rugby * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viriviri, Samisoni 1988 births Living people People from Nadroga-Navosa Province Fijian rugby union players Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union wings Male rugby sevens players Fiji international rugby union players Sportspeople from Nadi World Rugby Awards winners Montpellier Hérault Rugby players Fiji international rugby sevens players I-Taukei Fijian people Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players of Fiji Olympic gold medalists for Fiji Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Expatriate rugby league players in France Fijian expatriate rugby union players Fijian expatriate sportspeople in France Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Fiji Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Fijian Drua players Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games