![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0_sun1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n26-year-old Saimoni Vunilagi died on Friday, having been hospitalised on Monday after a team practice<\/p>\n
11:51, 08 Aug 2026Updated 11:59, 08 Aug 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Saimoni Vunilagi has sadly passed away. (Image: Japan Rugby League One)<\/p>\n
A Fijian rugby player has died with suspected heatstroke in Japan.<\/p>\n
Saimoni Vunilagi was taken to hospital in Fukuoka after a team practice with second-division club Kyushu KV on Monday. He died on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Temperatures in Fukuoka had reached a high a 35C on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players, staff, and all team associates are devastated by this sudden news,\u201d the club said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Saimoni had only recently joined Kyushu KV, his generous spirit and powerful style of play had raised high hopes for his contributions in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n
JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE Latest news, analysis and much more<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe humbly pray for the repose of his soul and extend our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family.\u201d<\/p>\n The 26-year-old had begun his professional career in 2023, having attended university in Japan.<\/p>\n The forward previously played for Tokyo Sungoliath.<\/p>\n Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year and parts of the country have hit 40C in recent weeks.<\/p>\n Around 18,000 people were taken to hospital for heatstroke between July 20 and 26, with 45 of them pronounced dead on arrival – according to the fire and disaster management agency.<\/p>\n The country experiences around 1,300 heat-related deaths a year and is aiming to half that number by 2030.<\/p>\n Kyushu play some of their home matches at Mikuni World Stadium in Kitakyushu, the ground that hosted Wales’ first Test defeat to Japan last July.<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"26-year-old Saimoni Vunilagi died on Friday, having been hospitalised on Monday after a team practice 11:51, 08 Aug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[94903,110371,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-732129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-fiji-rugby-team","tag-japan-rugby-team","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}