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Flying Fijian prop Yalayalatabua dead at 43
By Online Editors
Former Flying Fijian and Highlanders prop Alefoso Yalayalatabua has died at the age of 43, according to reports from media outlets in Fiji.
He becomes the fourth member of Fiji's 2007 Rugby World Cup to pass away, a list which sadly includes Maleli Kunavore, Jone Railomo and Seru Rabeni.
A minute of silence was observed in honour of Yalayalatabua prior to the start of the Fiji Rugby Union Annual General Meeting, which was held this weekend.
A late bloomer in terms of his Test rugby career, Yalayalatabua made his international bow for Fiji in 2007, aged 30, in a 3-8 loss to Samoa.
A dynamic ball-carrying prop, he was named in his country's squad at the 2007 Rugby World Cup finals, where he played just one game, in the 12-55 loss to Australia. He earned 10 caps for his national for Fiji, although his ties to the Fijian armed forced ultimately limited his Test career due to both New Zealand and Australia's ban on military from the country. As a result, he was unable to participate in the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
The 5'11, 106kg loosehead featured for local side Namosi in 2003. He forced his way into the Highlanders squad for the 2007 Colonial Cup and later the Air Pacific Fiji Warriors and according to FijiRugby.com, his rapid rise in status saw him join the Flying Fijians squad and he made his aforementioned debut against Samoa later than year.
He finished his career at the Suva rugby club.
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Latest Comments
Thats exactly the criticism Ed, that it has already been done for generations. A strong SA, in many respects, should certainly help African rugby develop. You'd have to think they'd acclimatize much better being drawn to a pro SA club than say a European. Hopefully the fact theyve gone private (is that right Graham?) should enable this sort of change.
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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