After the ban and leaving Sale Sharks, has Epi Taione continued
playing? If so, where? If not, did he quit rugby completely or
remained involved in coaching/developing activities?

Hi!!


He is now playing for the Japanese team Sanyo Wild Knights:
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/social/rugby/e/index.html

Unfortunately the english page of this team is not well updated, but
its  japanese version is, see Taione's page:
"Epeli Taione":
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/social/rugby/member/t_epeli.html


Use the BabelFish translator to read it in english, just copy and
paste the URL address on the Web page translation box and select
Japanese to English:
http://babelfish.altavista.com


I found him by an indirect method, after researching for him I found
he is continuing playing for Tonga's National Team at the IRB Pacific
5 Nations tournament and, lucky me!!, Tonga players appear listed with
the team where the play as proffesionals:
"Tonga rugby news, commentary, fun, fixtures, results, downloads and
features from Rugby365.com":
"..., Epeli Taione (Sanyo, Japan - captain),..."
http://www.rugby365.com/COUNTRY_BY_COUNTRY/Tonga/Country_News/story_52153.shtml


From here I searched for such Sanyo team and found the Wild Knights
english page with no results, continuing the research I found at "The
Unofficial Japanese Rugby Site (in English)" that:
"... (The Sanyo Wild Knights English page is not fully up to date by the way..."
http://www.dhs.kyutech.ac.jp/~ruxton/jprugby.html


Then I went to the japanese Sanyo Wild Knights' page and following the
links to reach the members page and the same on the NEW! members
listed I reached the Taione's page.
Sanyo Wild Knights (Japanese):
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/social/rugby/index.html

Members page:
The last link on ??? box, labeled with the NEW! banner is the Taione's
name in Japanese.
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/social/rugby/member.html


I hope this helps you. 


Regards,
livioflores-ga