Sione Fakaʻosilea (born 13 January 1987) is a

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 from

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 ...

. He plays in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

position for professional SuperLiga club

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramur ...

. He played for the

Tonga national rugby sevens team The Tonga national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series. Tonga has participated in five Rugby World Cup Sevens. Tournament history Rugby World Cup Sevens Tonga's first appearance was at the 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens ...

in 2013 and went on to play for Romania's national 15-a-side team, making his international debut at the 2017 Rugby Europe Championship in a match against the Russian Medvedi. However, after featuring in 13 internationals for Romania, including six in Rugby World Cup qualification matches for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

, questions were raised over Fakaʻosilea's eligibility to represent Romania. As Fakaʻosilea had previously represented Tonga in Sevens rugby at the 2013 Gold Coast Sevens, this rendered him ineligible to represent Romania under

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

rules on switching nationalities.

Honours

;

* SuperLiga: 2014

References

External links

* * * 1987 births Living people Romanian rugby union players Romania international rugby union players Tongan rugby union players Tongan emigrants to Romania Romanian people of Tongan descent CSM Știința Baia Mare players Rugby union centres {{Romania-rugbyunion-bio-stub