New Orleans Gold – Jojo Tikoisuva

New Orleans Gold Rugby re-signed Jojo Tikoisuva, a 22-year-old wing, for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. Tikoisuva was born in Burlingame, California and grew up in Sacramento, where he graduated from Rosemont High School in 2014.

In an interview by Liz Entwhistle, Jojo indicated that rugby was a big part of his life growing up. His “family would go to the USA Sevens tournaments every year since it was hosted in LA 2002 through the 2014 Vegas Sevens.”

Encouraged by his brother, “I started playing touch rugby when I was 9 years old and stopped for a while. When I was in the 7th grade I started playing wing for the Sacramento Islanders High School Rugby Club in Sacramento, California. I played in many All-Star games representing Sacramento, and Northern California.”

While in high school, his rugby talents were known nationally. In 2013 he played on the Under-17 USA High School All-Americans on their England tour. He also played for the Under-19 USA High School All-Americans for their Argentina tours in 2013 and in 2014.

JoJo Tikoisuva & Rugby Sevens

He was not only a talented rugby 15s player but excelled at rugby sevens as well. In 2014 he played with the HSAA U19 team at the Las Vegas Invitational with the team winning first place. He also was selected to represent the USA at the Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China. He culminated that year playing in the prestigious Central Coast 7s Tournament with Stars Rugby 7s in Brisbane, Australia. In 2015, he was invited to the Fiji 7s training camp. He also competed with the USA Falcons in 2016 in the 2016 Las Vegas invitational sevens tournament.

Jojo played with the Metropolis RFC Sevens team in both the 2017 and the 2018 USA Rugby Men’s Club Sevens Nationals.

JoJo Tikoisuva & Club Rugby

Jojo Tikoisuva also played club rugby for the Sacramento Lions from 2013 to 2014. He then went to Minnesota and played for the Metropolis RFC from 2015 to 2018, with a stint with PRO Rugby’s Sacramento Express during the Spring and Summer of 2016. In 2017 he selected to play for the USA Islanders against the Saracens in Bermuda.

Following the 2018 NOLA Gold Rugby Club season, he returned to Minnesota and resumed playing with Metropolis. JoJo will be back to New Orleans for the 2019 MLR season and fans will be entertained with him blazing down the pitch.