Samiu Kaufusi Vahafolau (born 24 April 1978 in

Ovaka Ovaka is an island in Tonga. It is located within the Vava'u Group in the far north of the country. It is 2800 meters long east–west, and more than 800 meters wide at its widest point. The namesake village is located on the northeast coast. The ...

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 ...

) is a 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 its m ...

footballerSamiu Vahafolau player profile
ESPN Scrum.com who played for

AS Béziers As, AS, A. S., A/S or similar may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * A. S. Byatt (born 1936), English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer * "As" (song), by Stevie Wonder * , a Spanish sports newspaper * , an academic male voic ...

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 ...

as well as the Tongan national team. His usual position was number eight.

Playing career

Vahafolau was born in Tonga and immigrated with his family to

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 ...

in 1991. He made his

Super 12 Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

debut for the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

in 1999, but never fully settled in that competition, spending 5 years alternating between stints with the Blues and Highlanders. After a stint in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

with the

Sanyo Wild Knights Saitama Wild Knights (formerly Panasonic Wild Knights) is a Japanese rugby union team formerly based in Ōta city, Gunma prefecture which plays in the Top League. Inspired by Tony Brown at fly half (though he was not captain), it dominated the l ...

, Vahafolau moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 2007 to join Biarritz Olympique in the

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 ...

. He would find a home at Biarritz and play some of the finest rugby of his career, scoring 6 tries in 24 matches for the squad in his first season. He was the starting number 8 for Biarritz through the 2009-10 season before falling down the pecking order in 2010-11. After 4 seasons with Biarritz, Vahafolau dropped down a league to sign with

of the

for 2011-12.

International Play

Vahafolau made his debut for

in the run-up to the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

but was not selected to the final squad. After two years away from the national team, he was brought back in 2011 and scored a try on his return against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

on 2 July.

References

External links

Player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vahafolau, Samiu Tongan rugby union players Rugby union players from Vavaʻu Living people 1978 births Tongan expatriate rugby union players in France Tonga international rugby union players Tongan emigrants to New Zealand People educated at Onehunga High School Rugby union number eights 2011 Rugby World Cup players Biarritz Olympique players AS Béziers Hérault players Blues (Super Rugby) players Highlanders (rugby union) players Auckland rugby union players Northland rugby union players Otago rugby union players