San Diego Legion signed Jay Tuivaiti for the 2024 Major League Rugby season. The 27-year-old lock/blindside flanker (28 in December) is 6’4″ and 265 lbs.
Jay is from West Auckland, New Zealand. He played in the Jock Hobbs Tournament in 2015 with the Auckland U19s A side. From 2016-2017 he played with the Auckland Colts and from 2016 through 2019 with the Auckland NPC Wider Training Squad.
Jay also played club rugby with Waitemata from 2015 to 2019 and again in 2022.
Injuries impacted his play in 2018 when a broken leg necessitated rehabilitation and in 2019 another Fibula injury happened in rugby 7s. He was part of the Hawke’s Bay B Wider Training Squad in 2020 and 2021, but his rehabilitation continued in 2020. In 2021 he played for the Hawke’s Bay Saracens.
In 2022 he was part of Manu Samoa’s 7s Traveling Team to Dubai. He was the Auckland B captain and his performance led him to being named Auckland B Player of the Year in 2022.
In 2023 he helped the Austin Black win the USA Rugby Division 1 National Championship, helped the Melbourne Harlequins win the Dewar Shield, and also played with the Victoria Axeman.
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