The San Diego Legion signed former Super Rugby fullback Joe Pietersen for the 2018 Major League Rugby season and he helped the team advance to the MLR semi-finals. The 34-year-old, 5’10”, 180 lb, South African back returns to the Legion for a full season in 2019.
Joe Pietersen (Johan Christiaan Pietersen) is from Vryheid, South Africa. He attended Grey College from 2000-2002. He also went to Stellenbosch University.
Joe has had an extensive rugby playing career. He played with Western Province youth team in 2003-04 and in 2004 played on the South Africa Under-20s Currie Cup team. He also played for the South Africa Sevens team in the 2004 HSBC World Sevens Series, earning 2 caps with the Blitzbokke.
Between 2004 and 2010 played with Western Province’s Senior team, playing in the Currie Cup and in the Vodacom Cup. He also played for the Super Rugby Stormers from 2006-2010.
He moved to France in 2010 to play for Top 14 club, Bayonne, before returning to Western Province for their 2012-13 season. He also returned to the Stormers during the same time frame.
Joe then returned to France to play with Biarritz in 2013-14. In 2015 he spent the first part of the year with the Free State Cheetahs and then with the Sharks in the Currie Cup.
He continued with the Cell C Sharks in 2016 before moving to Japan to play with the Kamaishi Seawaves in the Top East League from 2016-2018. In
In 2018 he moved to the U.S. and joined the San Diego Legion after the 2018 MLR season had begun. His experience, leadership, and boot helped the team advance to the MLR semi-finals. That leadership will continue in 2019 and will include some coaching responsibilities as well.
Joe has many passions, with rugby being one of them. He enjoys his free time surfing, is a conservationist and enjoys drone photography. He founded Nkombe Rhino NPC in 2015, which operates to an anti-poaching unit, promotes conservation and tourism. To promote his conservation efforts, he rode the uBhejane Xtreme Mountain Bike Challenge to contribute to the fight against rhino poaching.
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