Christian Loamanu

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Christian Loamanu
Rugby union career

Date of birth	(1986-05-13) 13 May 1986
Place of birth	Tatakamotonga, Tonga
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	106 kg (16 st 10 lb)
School	Shochi Fukaya High School
University	Saitama Institute of Technology
Playing career
Position	Wing, Centre, Fullback, Number 8
Professional / senior clubs
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2008–2009 2009–2012 2012–	Toshiba Brave Lupus Toulon Benetton Treviso	11 51 17	(60) (80) (25)
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2005–2008	Japan	16	(25)

Christian Loamanu (born 13 May 1986 in Tatakamotonga, Tonga) is a Japanese rugby union player who plays at wing but can also play centre, fullback, number 8. He plays in the Celtic League for Benetton Treviso.

Loamanu left his native Tonga at the age of 15 to move to Japan on a scholarship. He made his debut for the Japan national rugby union team against Uruguay in April 2005 aged 18 years and 338 days old and became the youngest player of all time to play for Japan (a record since broken by Yoshikazu Fujita).^[1]^[2] A few days after his second cap against Hong Kong, Loamanu was banned for a year from the Japan team after getting embroiled in a fight involving female professional wrestler Mika Akino in Tokyo's Roppongi nightspot district.^[3]^[4]

He was recalled in 2007 and scored a hat trick on his return to the side against Korea and he played at the Rugby World Cup later that year.

He joined Toshiba Brave Lupus in 2008 and won the Top League with them, but in February 2009 Loamanu tested positive for marijuana and was banned for life from playing rugby in Japan by the JRFU whilst his club Toshiba Brave Lupus withdrew from the All Japan Championship after the incident.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[4] In 2011 Japan coach John Kirwan appealed for the ban to be withdrawn before the Rugby World Cup but the request was turned down by the JRFU who said Loamanu "was not suitable to represent Japan".^[8]^[9]

After being exiled from Japanese rugby, Loamanu moved to Toulon for the 2009/10 season and spent three seasons there.^[10] He was released in 2012, and he joined Treviso after his former coach John Kirwan suggested the move.^[11]

Loamanu's grandfather Tevita Sitanilei played scrum half for the Tongan national rugby union team, whilst his brother Sitani has played for the Tongan national rugby league team.^[11]^[12]

References

External links

Christian Loamanu at ESPNscrum.com
(French) Statistics at itsrugby.fr

v t e Japan squad – 2007 Rugby World Cup

Forwards	Yamamura Yamamoto Soma Nishiura Matsubara Aoki H. Ono Kumagae Vatuvei Thompson Watanabe Kiso Makiri O'Reilly Sasaki Miuchi

Backs	Yatomi Yoshida Kim Ando K. Ono Onishi Oto Imamura Taira Robins Onozawa Endo Kitagawa Loamanu Aruga

Coach	Kirwan

v t e Benetton Rugby Treviso squad

Forwards	Cittadini A. De Marchi Di Santo Rouyet Muccignat Rizzo Ceccato Ghiraldini Maistri Sbaraglini Bernabò Fuser A. Pavanello Van Zyl Barbieri Budd Derbyshire Favaro Filippucci Minto Zanni Vosawai

Backs	Botes Gori Semenzato Ambrosini Berquist Di Bernardo Campagnaro Morisi Pratichetti Sgarbi Esposito Loamanu Nitoglia Toniolatti McLean Williams

Coach	Smith

Persondata
Name	Loamanu, Christian
Alternative names
Short description	Tongan rugby union player
Date of birth	13 May 1986
Place of birth	Tonga
Date of death
Place of death

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