Born in American Samoa, front rower Joe Taufete’e played in Major League Rugby between 2022-2025. He represented the LA Giltinis (2022), the Houston SaberCats (2023), the Seattle Seawolves (2024), and the NOLA Gold (2025)

The LA Giltinis announced the signing of Taufete’e on 11th March 2022, joining from Lyon in the French Top 14 having previously represented the Worcester Warriors in the English Premiership. He made 8 appearances during the 2022 regular season, scoring one try. Following the Giltinis’ suspension from the 2022 MLR season and subsequent collapse, Taufete’e returned to the English Premiership with the Leicester Tigers.

On 28th April 2023, the Houston SaberCats announce the signing of then-30yo Taufete’e for the remainder of the 2023 season. He scored 4 tries in 7 games (6 starts) for Houston to finish out the 2023 season, and featured in the Western Eliminator as a replacement as the SaberCats fell to the Seattle Seawolves by a score of 37-26. In September of 2023, the SaberCats traded Taufete’e to Seattle in exchange for star fly-half AJ Alatimu. He scored a career-high 8 MLR tries in 14 games (12 starts) for Seattle in 2024 as they defeated the San Diego Legion and Dallas Jackals to advance to their 4th MLR final, falling to the New England Free Jacks 11-20 in a game where Taufete’e scored the Seawolves’ only try, his 8th of the season to take him to T-9th in MLR that year.

On November 6th 2024, the Seattle Seawolves thanked Taufete’e for his time with the club, shortly after the NOLA Gold announced the signing of Joe Taufete’e for their 2025 season.

Achievements:

• 2024 MLR Runner-Up: Seattle Seawolves
• T-9th in MLR Try Scoring: 2024 (8)
• MLR Team of the Week: 2024 – Rd 15
• MLR Team of the Week: 2024 – Rd 8
• MLR Team of the Week: 2024 – Rd 4
• MLR Team of the Week: 2024 – Rd 3
• MLR Team of the Week: 2023 – Rd 11