Samisoni Viriviri Nasagavesi (born 25 April 1988) is a Fiji rugby union player. He played for the

Fiji sevens The Fiji Sevens, also known as the Suva Sevens is an international rugby union sevens tournament held at the National Stadium in Suva, Fiji. It was a part of the Sevens World Series in 2000, but in the wake of the Fijian coup d'état later tha ...

team, and in 2014 won the

World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year The World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year is awarded by World Rugby each year. It was first awarded in 2004. The award is based in large part on the player’s performance over the course of the World Rugby Sevens Series, along with other Sevens to ...

award after leading the 2013-14 World Rugby Sevens Series in tries scored. He has signed with the French Top 14 club

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

Early career

Viriviri started his career playing in the local 7's competition. He chased a dream borne out of the stories of his grandfather and namesake who was part of the legendary 1977 Fiji XV that beat the British and Irish Lions in Suva. At 19, he broke into the club level for Dratabu in the Nadi Rugby Union club games and later played for Lomaiviti and Suva in 2010 before joining Nadroga. He played for the Police 7's side and he caught the eye of Fiji sevens assistant coach, Etuate Waqa and was selected as the backup winger to Waisea Nayacalevu in the Fiji 7's side.

2012–present

He made his debut at the

2012 Gold Coast Sevens The 2012 Gold Coast Sevens was the first tournament of the 2012-2013 Sevens World Series. It was held over the weekend of 13–14 October 2012 at Robina Stadium (known for sponsorship reasons as Skilled Park) in Queensland, Australia, and was th ...

but did not make the cut for the Dubai and South Africa legs. He made a comeback in the 2013 Wellington Sevens and followed it up with an impressive effort in the 2013 USA Sevens. His top performance and 8 tries at Hong Kong gave him the Best and Fairest Player Award. He ended the

2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series The 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 14th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for full national sides. The IRB Sevens World Series has been run by the International Rug ...

with 29 tries. In January 2014, he signed with Top 14 club,

. He started the

2013–14 IRB Sevens World Series The 2013–14 IRB Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 15th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides. The IRB Sevens World Series has been run by the Internation ...

like he ended the last, he notched up 7 tries in the 2013 Dubai Sevens and he carried his performance to the 2013 South Africa Sevens scoring 6 tries. He became the top try scorer in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

scoring 9 tries. He leads the season with 48 tries, 17 clear of nearest rival, NZ's, Tim Mikkelson. He was shortlisted as the 2014 IRB Sevens Player of the Year. He finished the season as the Top try-scorer with 52 tries. At the end of the 2014 London Sevens, Viriviri was awarded the 2014 IRB Sevens Player of the Year, the first time a Fijian (playing for Fiji) has ever won that award. He was also named in the IRB 7s dream team of the season alongside NZ's

DJ Forbes Derek Jamie "DJ" Forbes (born 15 December 1982) is a New Zealand former rugby union player and captain of the All Blacks Sevens team. Forbes is part Samoan, and also played rugby fifteens as a loose forward for Counties Manukau. Forbes was bo ...

, Scott Curry, Australia's Cameron Clarke, Canadian duo John Moonlight and Phil Mack as well as South Africa's Justin Geduld. He made his debut for Montpellier in the

2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage The 2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage was the first stage of the 20th season of European club rugby union, and the first to be organised under the new European Rugby Champions Cup format, which replaced the Heineken Cup as the top ...

on the left wing, he scored a try but was denied by the referee due to an incident earlier. But he did not score any try in six appearances in Top 14 and European Champions Cup. In 2015, he was sold off to

ProD2 Prod or PROD may refer to: * Cattle prod, a device used to goad livestock into moving *Public Request to Order Disposal, part of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 * Prod, a village in Hoghilag Commune, Sibiu County, Romania * Produc ...

club, Montauban. He joined the Fiji 7's side in March 2016 and helped them win the

2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series The 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, was the 17th annual series of rugby union sevens tournaments for national men's rugby sevens teams. The Sevens Series has been run by ...

. He made the final 28-man squad for the Fiji 15's team for the

2016 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup The 2016 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup was the eleventh edition of the World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup (formerly known as the IRB Pacific Nations Cup), an annual international rugby union tournament. The 2016 title was contested by the Pacific n ...

References

External links

* * *
Samisoni Viriviri
at Ultimate Rugby * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viriviri, Samisoni 1988 births Living people People from Nadroga-Navosa Province Fijian rugby union players Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union wings Male rugby sevens players Fiji international rugby union players Sportspeople from Nadi World Rugby Awards winners Montpellier Hérault Rugby players Fiji international rugby sevens players I-Taukei Fijian people Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players of Fiji Olympic gold medalists for Fiji Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Expatriate rugby league players in France Fijian expatriate rugby union players Fijian expatriate sportspeople in France Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Fiji Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Fijian Drua players Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games