Inoke Afeaki (born 12 July 1973 in Tofoa, Tongatapu) is a

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

n 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, coach and administrator. He has played professionally in New Zealand, Japan, Wales, France and Tonga, and coached in France, New Zealand and Singapore. His usual playing position was at lock.

Career

Afeaki has played for the

Wellington Lions The Wellington Rugby Football Union (known as the Wellington Lions for competition reasons) are a New Zealand governing body of rugby union in the New Zealand province of Wellington Region. The main stadium is Sky Stadium (formerly named Wes ...

in the

National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to: * National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides * National Provincial Championship (2006–present) The National Provincial Championship (NP ...

, the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

in the international Super 14 competition, Secom and

Ricoh is a Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company. It was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) known as the ''Riken Concern'', on 6 February 1936 as . Ricoh's hea ...

in Japan before joining the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...

in Wales. He represented

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

in the French

Pro D2 The 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 introduced in 2000. It ...

. He captained

at the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England national rugby union team, England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispu ...

. He signed for Saint Etienne in 2009. In 1986-90, he attended St Bernard's College in Wellington, in 1991 and 1992 he played for the Wellington under 19 and 21 teams respectively. He played for Petone from 1992 through to 1999, and the Wellington Lions from 1993–96 and again from 1999-01. He made his Super 12 debut for the Hurricanes in 1996, in the first season. He played in Japan from 1997–98, then returned to the Hurricanes from 1999 to 2001. He went back to Japan in 2002 and played there until 2005.

International career

He made his debut for Tonga on May 26, 1995 in a match against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, coming on as a replacement in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

during 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 also played in two other matches during the tournament, in the starting line-up, against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest city and ...

. He next played for Tonga in November 2001 when he started against Scotland at

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium is a rugby union stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The stadium is owned by the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) who has its headquarters based at the stadium, and is the national stadium of the Scotla ...

. He captained them in their next match against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, in which he scored a try. He retained the captaincy for the following season and played four matches for Tonga in 2002. Following captaining them in a number of internationals in 2003, he then led Tonga at the

in Australia. In 2004 he was the captain of the

Pacific Islanders rugby union team The Pacific Islanders was a combined international rugby union team that played from 2004 to 2008. It represented Fiji national rugby union team, Fiji, Samoa national rugby union team, Samoa and Tonga national rugby union team, Tonga; Niue Rugby Un ...

that played a series of matches against southern nations. In an incident during the match against Côte d’Ivoire he tackled Max Brito, an ivoirian player, who broke his neck in the following Ruck that collapsed on him. Afeaki was coach and technical director at Singapore Rugby Union from 2012 to 2017, before taking sports administration positions in Tonga.

Personal life

Afeaki's family moved from Tonga to

Petone Petone (Māori language, Māori: ''Pito-one'') is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. It stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. Europeans first settled in Petone in Januar ...

when he was three. He now lives in Wellington and works as a site logistics controller for construction company McKee Fehl. Afeaki is married to Kanoko, who is Japanese. The couple has two sons. He became a New Zealand citizen in 2022 and stood as a candidate in the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Wellington, the country's capital city and List of cities in New Zealand#City councils, third-largest city by popul ...

election that year.

References

External links

Inoke Afeaki
on teivovo.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Afeaki, Inoke 1973 births Living people Rugby union locks Tongan rugby union players Scarlets players Black Rams Tokyo players Wellington rugby union players Hurricanes (rugby union) players FC Grenoble Rugby players Rugby union players from Tongatapu Tonga international rugby union players Pacific Islanders rugby union players Tongan expatriate rugby union players in France Tongan expatriate rugby union players in New Zealand Tongan expatriate rugby union players in Japan People educated at St Bernard's College, Lower Hutt 1995 Rugby World Cup players 2003 Rugby World Cup players 2007 Rugby World Cup players Secom Rugguts players