The Houston SaberCats added Maikeli Mudu Naromaitoga to the team for the remainder of the 2022 Major League Rugby season. The 30-year-old lock/back row is 6’5″ and 270 lbs.
Maikeli has been playing for several teams during the last two years and joins the SaberCats from the Austin Blacks. He played for the Hartford harpooners at the 2022 Florida Ruggerfest 10s and helped the team win the Freetail 7s in 2021. He also played with the Dallas Reds at the 2021 USA Club Nationals 7s and at the World Tens in Bermuda in 2020.
He last played in the MLR for the Austin Gilgronis in 2020, playing 284 minutes in 5 starts.
Maikeli began the 2019 MLR season with the Utah Warriors. He played 60 minutes in 3 matches and scored 1 try. He carried 15 times for 82 meters, had 2 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, and made 5 tackles. He then was loaned to Austin Elite for the remainder of the season. For the Elite he played 51 minutes in 3 matches, had 8 carries for 38 meters, and made 10 tackles.
Since the end of the MLR season, he has played with the Grand Prairie Mavericks, a Red River Division III Club. He also played for Atlantis Rugby 7s and helped them win the Championship at the Freetail 7s in December.
Maikeli is from Suva, Fiji, and has an extensive rugby resume. He was a member of the 2010 and 2011 IRB Junior World Championship teams that played in Argentina and in Italy, respectively. he also played representative rugby with the Nadi Rugby Union Under-20s during those years.
In 2012 he played with the Fiji Warriors in the Pacific Rugby Cup in New Zealand and in Australia. He also played with Sunnybank Rugby Club in Australia, with Honda Rugby Club in Nagoya, Japan, and with the Nadi Rugby Union Representative team that year.
From 2013 through 2018 he played with the Jacks of Fiji Nadi Rugby Union Provincial team and in 2015 with Mid-Canterbury Rugby in New Zealand.
In October 2018 Maikeli moved to the U.S. and played with the Dallas Harlequins and played for the Utah Warriors and the Austin Elite in 2019 and the Austin Gilgronis in 2020.
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