Atunaisa Sokobale

Eroni Mawi got injured before Fiji played France in November 2025, and Atunaisa Sokobale was put on the bench. He was twenty and had never been capped. He came on against the side ranked above his own, and three weeks later scored his first international try in a 44-33 win over Spain in Malaga.

Prop at Castres, 1.89m and 110kg, born on 10 May 2005.

He is from Navatu, in Fiji’s Bua Province, and was educated at Sigatoka Methodist College, where he was also a champion shot putter. That is a useful background for a prop: the event rewards exactly the short, explosive leg drive a scrum does.

His brother is Savenaca Rawaca, also a Fiji international.

Castres brought him to France and he has played in the Champions Cup for them, including against Munster in the 2025-26 season. At twenty that is a fast route from a school first XV to a European knockout competition, and prop is the position where clubs are usually slowest to trust youth.

Fiji named him in their squad for the 2026 Nations Championship in June.

He is 21, and the two things on his record that matter are a Test cap won on short notice against a top-four nation and a try scored in his first month of international rugby. Neither is common for a front-rower of that age. What is not yet on the record is a settled run of Top 14 starts, and that is the next thing to look for.