Ilivasi Sevia Tabua Tamanivalu (born 30 September 1964 in Naivicula) is a Fijian former

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

footballer who played at international level for both

Fiji Fiji, 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 of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

as a flanker. He was nicknamed The Human Skewer. He also coached Fiji at the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup () was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by F ...

Career

Tabua played for

sevens team in the 1993

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

, after which he played for

in fifteens in the

1995 Rugby World Cup The 1995 Rugby World Cup (), was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in ...

. He has played 10 tests for

. In the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup () was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's History of rugby union#The professional era, professional era. Four a ...

he played for the

team.

Personal life

He was raised in a family of seven siblings, five boys and two girls. His son is named Ilivasi Noah Taminivalu. He later left Noah and his mother. He spent the first 12 years of his childhood in the Lau group as his father was a teacher at one of the schools on the chiefly island. Ilivasi started school at Mabula, Cicia in Lau before his family moved to the mainland in the 1970s. His family settled at Naivicula, Tailevu where his father comes from. He attended Marist Brothers High School. In 1980, Ilivasi left to further his studies in

Coaching career

After retiring from international rugby, he came back to Fiji to help the Fiji team to prepare for the

. He was recently appointed the head coach of Fiji's HPU and helped the former Fiji coach

Wayne Pivac Wayne Pivac (born 1962) is a New Zealand rugby union coach who is the head coach of the Green Rockets Tokatsu, NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu who play in the Japan Rugby League One. In November 2019 he replaced Warren Gatland as the Wales national ru ...

with the Fiji team, but when Pivac resigned from Fiji rugby in January 2007, Tabua was picked as the man to replace him and he was chosen as the new coach. He was also the first Fijian to be appointed the national coach to the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

. He comes at the tail end of a succession of expatriates including George Simpkin,

Brad Johnstone Bradley Ronald Johnstone (born 30 July 1950) is a New Zealand rugby union administrator and former player who is currently the president of the North Shore Rugby Football Club. He played as a prop He first played for Auckland, in 1971, and wen ...

, Greg Smith, Mac McCallion and Pivac who left in January 2007. On 19 August 2009 Tabua was sacked by the

Fiji Rugby Union Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Fiji. It is divided into over 30 provincial unions. The Fiji Rugby Union is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA), along with Samoa and Tonga. There are ...

citing off-field incidents during Fiji's

2009 IRB Pacific Nations Cup The 2009 Pacific Nations Cup is a rugby union tournament held between five national sides on the Pacific Rim: Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and the Junior All Blacks. The New Zealand Māori team that won the tournament last year will no longer take pa ...

campaign.National rugby coach Ilivasi Tabua sacked
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Notes and references

External links

BioFiji Times interviewFiji profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabua, Ilivasi 1964 births Living people People educated at Marist Brothers High School, Fiji Fijian rugby union coaches Fijian rugby union players Rugby union flankers Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Fiji international rugby union players Fiji national rugby union team coaches Fijian emigrants to Australia Rugby union players from Nadroga-Navosa Province 1995 Rugby World Cup players 1999 Rugby World Cup players GPS Rugby players Queensland rugby union team players 20th-century Australian sportsmen