Tani Vili

In the summer of 2024 Bordeaux announced that Tani Vili was leaving for La Rochelle. It was their own error, and days afterwards he signed a two-year deal with Vannes, who had just come up. A year later he was in Paris. Four clubs in four seasons, at twenty-five.

Centre at Stade Français, 1.87m and 109kg, and 25 years old.

Brive-la-Gaillarde is where he was born, into a family of Wallisian and New Caledonian origin, and Saint-Céré and the Entente Vigilante Malemort Brive Olympique are where he learned it. Brive spotted him; Clermont took him into their academy in 2017.

Two medals arrived in two years. A European Under-18 title in 2017, then silver in the sevens at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, at seventeen.

Clermont played him at eighteen, in Europe against the Dragons in January 2019, and he had real championship minutes from 2020-21. The Espoirs title came in 2018 and a French championship final in 2019.

Then three call-ups and no cap. Galthié named him for the Australia tour of June 2021 and did not use him; he was in the extended squad for the November internationals and did not play any of the three. He has not been named since.

Bordeaux signed him for 2022-23 and reached a championship final in 2024, a season in which he played five matches. Vannes followed, and then a two-year deal with Paris in the summer of 2025.

He is a heavy centre — 109kg at 1.87m — which is what a club buys him for, and the reason a career that has moved this often keeps finding another Top 14 club to move to.