Malakai Delai

USA sevens

1. Rugby World Cup Sevens: historical scoring record

   Two Sevens World Cups · 35 points and seven tries. Source ↗

2. 1998-03-27/1998-03-29 · Hong Kong Sevens

   Named try scorer against Singapore and Korea, and credited with a conversion against Singapore. Source ↗

The OMBAC affiliation

Recognised on OMBAC’s Eagles roll and confirmed by the club contributor.

Club contributor / supplied club records

Original club roll ↗

Photograph provenance

Virginia Cardinals archive · Aspen 2004; Malakai is centre of captioned group

Where this photograph was found ↗

The national record

USA fifteens

15+ documented minimum

USA sevens tournaments

3+ documented minimum

Names in the archive

The printed club roll spells the name Malakai Dabuvuya. The national sevens archive also captions him as Malakai Delai (Tabuvuya). These variants are preserved under one profile.

MVP of a national final

Malakai Delai was named most valuable player of the 1995 national club sevens tournament as OMBAC beat Northern Virginia 35–19 at Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

The 1997 World Cup Sevens

He was one of ten men in the USA squad that won the Bowl at the 1997 World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong, and was described as the side’s leading try-scorer: two against Romania, one each against France, Morocco and Japan in the Bowl final, and a fifty-metre interception against Canada in the quarter-final.

Budapest, on an island in the Danube

Delai played sevens for the United States through 1998 to 2001, always listed with OMBAC as his club. His kick ahead set up Vaea Anitoni’s try against Korea at Hong Kong in 1998. He was part of the side that won Budapest in 2000, played on an island in the Danube, and at Hong Kong in 2001 he scored to finish the first half of the United States’ 31–26 Plate final comeback over Wales from 19–0 down — their first Plate since 1988.

He is named first in the 1996 national championship XV, which by the order of listing puts him at fullback.