Sione Letoi

South African Fly-half/Fullback Johan Christiaan ‘Joe’ Pietersen played in Major League Rugby between 2018-2022. He represented the San Diego Legion for his entire MLR career.

Having played rugby growing up, Pietersen developed his game in the Western Province youth team between 2003-2004, also playing on the South Africa U20 Currie Cup and South African Sevens team, the ‘Blitzbokke’, both in 2024. Pietersen graduated to the Western Province senior team that same year, playing there between 2004-2010 in the Currie Cup & Vodacom Cup competitions, as well as with the Stormers in Super Rugby (at the time) between 2006-2010. In 2010, Pietersen moved to France to play with Bayonne in the Top 14 before returning to Western Province & the Stormers for the 2012/13 season. He returned to France the following season, this time with Biarritz, before splitting the 2015 season between the Free State Cheetahs and the Sharks in the Currie Cup, and continued with the Cell C Sharks through 2016. The next stage of Pietersen’s extensive professional career took him to Japan, signing with the Kamaishi Seawaves in the Top East League from 2016-2018, before moving to the USA to join the San Diego Legion.

Pietersen spent 5 seasons playing in Major league Rugby with the San Diego Legion, becoming one of the most prolific scorers in MLR history. He amassed 420pts scored across 45 games in MLR, averaging 9.3pts per game. He finished 2nd in scoring during the 2019 season, when the San Diego Legion finished as runners up to the Seattle Seawolves, falling in the final minute of the Championship Final. the 2nd player in league history to pass 400pts scored, and was the 2nd highest points scorer in league history until 2025, having finished in the Top 10 points scorers in 3 separate seasons (2019, 2021, 2022). Following the 2022 season, then-38yo Pietersen quietly retired and turned his focus to wildlife conservation in his native South Africa, through organisations such as Nkombe Rhino, OppiPanne Botswana, and Spirit of Kruger.

achievements:

3rd in MLR Scoring: 2022 (146pts)
9th in MLR Scoring: 2021 (80pts)
2nd in MLR Scoring: 2019 (163pts)
MLR Runner-Up: 2019 (San Diego Legion)

California native Mikey Te’o has played in every season of Major League Rugby since the inaugural season in 2018. He represented the San Diego Legion between 2018-2020 before moving to the Utah Warriors for 2021-2022. Te’o returned to the Legion for 2023-2024.

Prior to his MLR career, Te’o played with Taranaki in New Zealand’s Mitre 10 (now the Bunnings NPC) in 2015, as well as the San Diego Breakers in the short lived PRO Rugby competition, the spiritual predecessor to MLR. He finished as the Breakers’ top try scorer, with 5. Te’o earned his first international caps with the USA during the 2016 Americas Rugby Championship, primarily at scrum-half, unusual for the regular back three player. Mikey Te’o stayed in San Diego and signed with the Legion ahead of the inaugural MLR season in 2018. Te’o’s MLR career got off to a rocky start, suffering an ACL injury in the opening game of the season that sidelined him for the entire season and requiring 12 months of rehabilitation.

Te’o bounced back from this with a fantastic 2019 season, earning 13 MLR caps (all starts) for the Legion and scoring 9 tries, tied for 4th in the league that season and leading San Diego. After making 1 further start in the shortened 2020 season, in November 2020 it was announced that Te’o would be joining the Utah Warriors for the 2021 MLR season. Te’o matched his personal best of 9 tries in his first season in Utah in 2021, finishing 3rd in the league (tied with 7 other players) for tries scored and appearing in 15 of the Warriors‘ 16 regular season games, Te’o also started their Western Eliminator, a 17-13 loss to eventual Champions, the LA Giltinis. He gained an MLR-best 1,518m with ball in hand in 2021, almost 300m ahead of 2nd place and was named as MLR’s Player of the Year for 2021.. Te’o re-signed with the Warriors ahead of the 2022 season and added another 5 tries to his total in 16 games (12 starts) for Utah.

In his return to San Diego, Te’o was one of only 2 Legion players (with Will Hooley) to appear in all 18 Legion games that season (17 starts). He added 6 tries to his total and gained over 1300m including 1193m during the regular season, finishing 6th highest in the league. The Legion finished the regular season with a league-best 15-1 record and went all the way to the Championship final before falling 24-25 to the New England Free Jacks in Chicago. As of the conclusion of the 2023 MLR season, Te’o had earned a total of 65 MLR caps (59 starts) and scored 29 tries, putting him tied for 3rd (with John Ryberg) for the league’s all-time leading try scorers. Te’o gained 1,432m in 2023, finishing 3rd in MLR in that category. He has earned 9 MLR Team of the Week selections, with 4 of these coming in the 2021 season. He was the 30th player in league history to reach 50 caps in the competition.

On 2nd October 2023, the San Diego Legion announced the return of Te’o along with 6 other returnees for 2024. Te’o made 11 appearances (8 starts) for the Legion that season, scoring 3 tries to take his total to 32 MLR tries (3rd all-time) as the Legion qualified for the post-season for the 5th time. Te’o came off the bench in the Legion’s Western Conference Semifinal clash with the Seattle Seawolves, scoring a conversion as the Legion’s late comeback fell just short, ending with a 30-28 defeat. Following the season, MLR announced on 9th September 2024 that Te’o (who is not on social media) was hanging up his boots.