South African winger/fullback Bjorn Basson played in Major League Rugby between 2021-2022. He represented the San Diego Legion for his entire MLR career.

Basson began playing rugby young, graduating Dale College in 2005 and playing youth rugby with the Border Bulldogs U19 between 2005-2006 before joining the Griquas in 2007. He began his senior career with the Griquas in the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup competitions between 2008-2010, scoring an incredible 47 tries in 56 appearances, including a single-season Currie Cup Premier Division record of 21 in 2010, when he was also named the Absa Currie Cup Premier Division Player of the Year. Unsurprisingly, Basson’s talents had attracted the attention of Super Rugby teams, and he earned his debut with the Cheetahs in 2009, scoring 6 tries in 9 appearances. In 2011 he joined the Bulls whom he represented through 2016, scoring 29 tries in 86 Super Rugby appearances, while also playing with the Blue Bulls, scoring 21 tries in 26 games. Basson also briefly travelled to Japan to play with the Honda Heat during their 2015/16 season.

Basson left the Bulls and spent the 2017 Super Rugby season with the Stormers, scoring 3 tries in 6 games and also scoring 4 tries in 6 additional games with Western Province. Later that year he joined Oyonnax in the French Top 14 as a medical joker, before returning to South Africa to represent the Southern Kings for the 2018/19 PRO 14 season, also returning to play with the Griquas in 2019 before heading to Russia for the Russian Rugby Championship with Enisei-STM.

The San Diego Legion announced the addition of Basson in September 2020, ahead of their 2021 season. He continued his prolific try scoring during his debut season in North America, scoring 10 tries in 15 appearances (14 starts), finishing 4th league-wide, and gaining 1,121m. Across his 2 seasons with the Legion, he scored 14 tries in 28 appearances (27 starts), and gained just over 2,000m with ball in hand.

achievements:

• 4th in MLR Try Scoring: 2021 (10)
• 3rd in MLR Meters Gained: 2021 (1,121m)
• 1,000m+ season: 2021