Roy Kinikinilau (born 14 February 1980) is a 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 ...

player who most recently played for the Ricoh Black Rams in the

Top League Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...

in Japan. A powerful winger, Kinkinilau is also an accomplished

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 ...

player. Born in

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 ...

, he represented

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 ...

internationally in rugby sevens competitions.

Playing career

Provincial Rugby

Kinkinilau was born in Tonga but came to New Zealand at age 6. He made his provincial debut for

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

in 2002 at number eight but due to his pace and athleticism was converted to a wing the following season. Kinkinilau spent four seasons at Wellington before transferring to

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

for the 2006 Air New Zealand Cup. Although he helped Waikato to a championship-winning campaign, he didn't play in the finals against his old team, Wellington. Following the

2007 Air New Zealand Cup The 2007 National Provincial Championship was the second season of the National Provincial Championship (known as the Air New Zealand Cup for sponsorship reasons), a provincial rugby union competition involving 14 teams from New Zealand. Match ...

, he signed in Japan.

Super Rugby

Despite an admirable try-scoring record, Kinikinilau never really found a settled place in the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition. He made his debut for 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

2004 Super 12 season The 2004 Super 12 season was the ninth season of the Super 12, contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 2004, with each team playing all the others once. At the end of the regular seaso ...

, and impressively scored 5 tries in only 9 appearances. However, he was not included in the side for the 2005 season. For

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, Kinikinilau was drafted to the Highlanders. He started the season with a bang, with 4 tries from his first 4 starts, but came off the boil as the season went along, ending the year on the substitute's bench. He did, however, lead the side with 5 tries. Kinikinilau was on the move again for the

2007 Super 14 season The 2007 Super 14 season started in February 2007 with preseason matches held from mid-January. It finished on 19 May with the final at Kings Park Stadium in Durban, in the first final between two South African teams in the history of Super Rug ...

, this time drafted to the Chiefs. He started 12 of the team's 13 games and scored another four tries.

Japan

Kinikinilau left New Zealand in 2007 to sign in Japan with the Ricoh Black Rams. He has remained with the team through 2010-11, where he scored 5 tries in 9 appearances before retiring in 2015.

Rugby Sevens

Kinikinilau was a dynamic rugby sevens player who exploded onto the international scene in style, scoring 37 tries in 7 competitions in 2002 and 2003. He continued as an elite sevens player through 2007, when he helped New Zealand win the 2006-07 IRB Sevens World Series. Since retiring from rugby, Kinikinlau runs and operates a cleaning business in Perth, WA, Kinikleen.

References

External links

Hurricanes Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinikinilau, Roy Tongan rugby union players 1980 births Living people New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union wings Tongan emigrants to New Zealand Chiefs (Super Rugby) players Hurricanes (rugby union) players Highlanders (rugby union) players Wellington rugby union players Waikato rugby union players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan Black Rams Tokyo players