New Zealand born, Australia raised forward Les Soloai played in Major League Rugby between 2018-2021. He represented the Utah Warriors (2018-19) and the Seattle Seawolves (2020-21).

Born in Auckland, NZ but raised on the Gold Coast in Australia, Les Soloai began his career as a rugby league player. He attended Keebra Park State High School in Australia where he played basketball alongside rugby league, before enrolling at BYU Hawaii in the United States. Although attending BYU Hawaii on a basketball scholarship, Soloai eventually walked on to the University of Hawaii football team and continued to play rugby league with the local Hawaii Chiefs side in the American National Rugby League. In 2012, Soloai was given the opportunity to play with the Featherstone Rovers in the English RFL Championship where they finished 1st in the regular season with a 15-1-2 record before falling to the Sheffield Eagles in the Final.

Soloai’s performance in Hawaii and with Featherstone earned him a spot on the USA roster for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, where he earned his debut against France and 3 additional appearances as the USA advanced to the quarter-finals. In 2014 following the world cup campaign, Soloai returned to Australia to join the Tweed Heads Seagulls in the Queensland Cup (despite being based in New South Wales).

Les Soloai returned to the US as Major League Rugby was getting started, and signed for the Utah Warriors ahead of the league’s inaugural season in 2018. He earned 4 appearances for the Warriors in his first season as the team qualified for the playoffs despite a 3-5 record but Soloai played no part in their semi-final loss to Glendale. He returned for a second season with Utah in 2019, matching his 4 appearances but earning his first two MLR starts and adding his first try, gaining 167m and completing 26 tackles.

Ahead of the 2020 season, Les Soloai moved from Utah to the PNW and was training with the Seattle Seawolves when the MLR season was cancelled after only 5 rounds and before Soloai was able to make his Seawolves debut. The 34yo returned for the 2021 season with Seattle and earned 3 starts in 5 games (both career highs) and scored the 2nd try of his MLR career on 116m gained. This would be Soloai’s final season in MLR as he didn’t return in 2022. He started 5 of his 13 career appearances, scoring 2 tries on over 300m gained in possession, and completed 58 tackles.