Lote Raikabula (born 31 July 1983 in

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

, Fiji) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

rugby player who has played both

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 ...

and

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

. He used to play for the

All Blacks Sevens team All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and prof ...

in the

IRB Sevens World Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World ...

and is the Rugby coach for Nagato Blue Angels, Japan. He has played more than 60 tournaments since his debut in 2006, playing in 20 tournament-winning teams. He has five

medals, a

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 ...

title and two

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

gold medals. Raikabula has played

for both

Hawkes Bay Hawke's Bay () is a region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region is named for Hawke Bay, which was named in honour of Edward Hawke. The region's main centres are the cities of Napier and Hastings, while the more rural ...

and Manawatu in the

Air New Zealand Cup An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

. Raikabula has won five IRB Sevens World Series medals, a Rugby World Cup Sevens title, and two Commonwealth Games gold medals. He played ten years for the New Zealand sevens team from 2006–2016, retiring from international rugby shortly before the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, at the age of 33. He has two sons with his childhood sweetheart.

Coaching

In November 2016 he was appointed as the head coach of Rugby at

Trinity College Kandy Trinity College, Kandy is a private Anglican boys' school located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It offers both day and boarding facilities. It was founded in 1872 by British Anglican missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, modelled on British ...

, Sri Lanka. His services as the head coach of Rugby at Trinity College was discontinued effective from 2 June 2018. He is currently Head Coach of the Thailand Men's and Women’s 7s Team along with being Director of Rugby for the union

Career highlights

* New Zealand Sevens, 2006–2016 * Hawke's Bay 2006, 2007 * East Coast, 2005 * Wellington Sevens, 2002–2005 * Wellington Under 21, 2003

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raikabula, Lote 1983 births New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand people of I-Taukei Fijian descent Rugby sevens players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Fijian emigrants to New Zealand Living people New Zealand international rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for New Zealand Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for Fiji Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games