Valenese Malifa
Encyclopedia
Valenese Malifa is an American
rugby union
fly-half. He is a member of the United States national rugby union team
and participated with the squad at the 2007 Rugby World Cup
.
Nese Malifa has played rugby since he was 17 years old. He played for Auckland and Samoa Rugby Clubs before moving to the U.S. to play for Belmont Shore. During his stint in the Pacific Islands, Malifa was a representative rugby player in Auckland in both the XV’s and Sevens game, as well as playing representative rugby in Samoa. Malifa’s talents were noticed by selectors while playing for Ponsonby and then the Eden Club in Auckland. Lesser known are Malifa’s talents in other sporting codes, as Malifa represented Samoa in Cricket. Malifa switched to his favored flyhalf position for the USA Hawks match against Canada West in the 2007 North America 4. He couldn’t have asked for a better start to his NA4 career, notching all of his teams points through two converted tries and two penalty goals from two attempts.
Playing rugby is all in the family for Nese - his father and three brothers also play the game. Valenese used to play premier Auckland club rugby for the Eden Eagles. It is considered that his twin brother Ata Malifa, was the better player at youth level. Their older brother Angelo, was the best fullback in the Eden club.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
fly-half. He is a member of the United States national rugby union team
United States national rugby union team
USA Rugby's men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States in the sport of rugby union. The Eagles are currently ranked 17th by the IRB World Rankings. Their highest ranking was from November 2, 2006 – September 10, 2007 at the 14th position...
and participated with the squad at the 2007 Rugby World Cup
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...
.
Nese Malifa has played rugby since he was 17 years old. He played for Auckland and Samoa Rugby Clubs before moving to the U.S. to play for Belmont Shore. During his stint in the Pacific Islands, Malifa was a representative rugby player in Auckland in both the XV’s and Sevens game, as well as playing representative rugby in Samoa. Malifa’s talents were noticed by selectors while playing for Ponsonby and then the Eden Club in Auckland. Lesser known are Malifa’s talents in other sporting codes, as Malifa represented Samoa in Cricket. Malifa switched to his favored flyhalf position for the USA Hawks match against Canada West in the 2007 North America 4. He couldn’t have asked for a better start to his NA4 career, notching all of his teams points through two converted tries and two penalty goals from two attempts.
Playing rugby is all in the family for Nese - his father and three brothers also play the game. Valenese used to play premier Auckland club rugby for the Eden Eagles. It is considered that his twin brother Ata Malifa, was the better player at youth level. Their older brother Angelo, was the best fullback in the Eden club.