California native Joeli Tikoisuva played in Major League Rugby between 2018-2024. He represented the NOLA Gold (2018-2022), San Diego Legion (2023), and Dallas Jackals (2024).

A talented player at both 15s and 7s, Tikoisuva was one of the few players in MLR to play in the short-lived PRO Rugby competition, MLR’s spiritual predecessor with the Sacramento Express. His signing was announced in October 2017, ahead of MLR’s inaugural season in 2018. In his debut season, Tikoisuva featured in all 8 of NOLA’s games, starting 7 and scoring 2 tries. In his 4 seasons with the Gold, Joeli Tikoisuva earned 30 MLR caps (19 starts) and scored 11 tries, including a high of 6 in 2021.

For the 2023 season, Tikoisuva was apparently signed with the San Diego Legion, but this was never announced by the team. He did not earn any additional MLR caps during 2023, helping to hide the fact that he had moved from the Gold. The first most fans heard of Tikoisuva with the San Diego Legion was on September 25th, 2023 when he was traded from the 2023 Runners-up to the Dallas Jackals in exchange for scrum-half Danny Christensen. Tikoisuva earned a further 6 appearances for the Dallas Jackals in 2024, starting twice to take his career total to 21 starts in 36 games, scoring 11 tries with 130 tackles made and over 1,300m gained in possession.

Achievements:

• MLR Team of the Week: 2021 – Round 16
• MLR Team of the Week: 2021 – Round 2