Koliniasi Holani

Koliniasi Holani is one of those guys where the name alone tells you there's a whole story behind it — a South Pacific cadence fused with the kanji character for "dragon," which feels less like a coincidence and more like a mission statement. He never played rugby until he came to Japan at 16, yet he became a 45-cap Japan international and went to two World Cups — the work speaks through physicality, not through headlines. Choosing to build a rugby career in Japan with that background takes a specific kind of resolve, and I respect that quietly stubborn energy a lot.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Koliniasi Holani (born October 25, 1981, in Nuku'alofa, Tonga) is a Tongan-born former Japan international rugby union player who took Japanese citizenship in 2007, adding the Japanese character for "dragon" to his name. He attended Saitama Institute of Technology, where he developed his rugby career. He belongs to the generation of players with Fijian or Tongan-rooted backgrounds who became part of the Japanese rugby scene. A number eight and flanker for the Panasonic Wild Knights, he won 45 caps for Japan, was selected for the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup squads, retired in 2019 and now coaches the Wild Knights forwards.

Name (English)

Koliniasi Holani

Name (Japanese)

ホラニ龍コリニアシ

Reading

ほらに りゅうこりにあし

Born

October 25, 1981 (age 45)

Origin

Nukuʻalofa, Tonga

Occupation

Rugby union player

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Rooster

University

Saitama Institute of Technology

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9B%E3%83%A9%E3%83%8B%E9%BE%8D%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%8B%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B7
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11338009

Tags

• Rugby union player

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.