Izaia Perese (born 17 May 1997) is an Australian professional rugby player who plays centre and wing for

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

in England's Premiership Rugby. He previously played for the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

club, Waratahs and the

Australia national team Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football, cricket and tennis are among the earliest organised sports in Australia. Sport ha ...

. He started his professional career in rugby union, playing as an outside back for the Queensland Reds in

and for in the National Rugby Championship. He has also played for

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

in France's Top 14 and Brisbane Broncos in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, the Australian rugby league competition.

Background

Perese was born in

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

He played his junior rugby league for

Brisbane Brothers The Past Brothers Rugby League Football Club, or Brisbane Brothers Rugby League Football Club nicknamed the Leprechauns, or more commonly known as Brothers, or as The Brethren, was a rugby league club based in the city of Brisbane, Australia, t ...

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

and attended Wavell State High School.Queensland Reds convert Izaia Perese impresses at first Brisbane Broncos hitout
NRL (11 December 2018). Retrieved on 2019-08-29. In 2013, Perese played for the Norths Devils in the Cyril Connell Cup and represented the Queensland under-16 rugby league team, while holding a scholarship with the North Queensland Cowboys. While attending Anglican Church Grammar School, he played alongside future NRL players

Kalyn Ponga Kalyn Ponga (born 30 March 1998) is a professional rugby league footballer who captains and plays as a for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League, NRL. He played for the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League, New ...

, Jaydn Su'A and

Brodie Croft Brodie Croft (born 14 July 1997) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the Salford Red Devils in the Super League. He previously played for the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL. Early l ...

, as well as future professional Rugby Union players in Liam Wright, Angus Scott-Young,

Mack Mason Mack Mason (born 19 January 1996) is an Australian rugby union player who plays as a fly-half for the Austin Gilgronis in the Major League Rugby (MLR). He previously played for the New South Wales Waratahs in Super Rugby. Mason made his Su ...

and Harley Fox in their 2014 title-winning first XV team. Later that year, he was selected for the Australian Schoolboys rugby union team. In March 2020 Perese pleaded guilty to supplying a dangerous drug in September 2019, but had a probation order for drug charges removed by a court to allow him to travel overseas.

Rugby union career

In 2015, Perese began playing for Queensland Country in the National Rugby Championship. In 2016, he joined the Queensland Reds senior squad, playing 17 games over three seasons.Izaia Perese
RUGBY.com.au. Retrieved on 29 August 2019. In August 2017, he was named in the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

squad for

The Rugby Championship The Rugby Championship is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are the four highest ranked national teams in the Southern Hemisphere; the Six Nations is a s ...

but did not play a game. In December 2018, Perese was released from the last year of his contract with the Reds. In May 2020 Izaia Perese announced his return to Rugby Union, playing for Bayonne in the French top 14. Perese signed on with the Waratahs until 2024 having previously been used as a Winger for the Reds, Perese made the switch to Centre while playing for the Waratahs. In March 2024 it was announced that Perese will be joining the English Rugby club

on a multi-year deal.

Rugby league career

2019

Perese joined the Brisbane Broncos on a train-and-trial deal, later earning a full-time NRL contract with the club. He began the season playing for the Redcliffe Dolphins in the Queensland Cup, representing the Queensland Residents side in their win over New South Wales. In round 22 of the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

, Perese made his NRL debut for Brisbane in their 24–12 win against the Penrith Panthers at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

2020

On 18 February, Perese was stood down indefinitely by the Brisbane club after being charged by police with drug-related offences. Perese was later granted bail and is due back in court on 9 March 2020. Brisbane CEO Paul White released a statement saying “Standing down Izaia is not a judgement of his guilt or innocence, but recognition that this is a serious matter, We have discussed our course of action and the reasoning behind it with Izaia, and he understands the action we have taken. We will review the matter as it moves through the legal process".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perese, Izaia 1997 births Living people 2023 Rugby World Cup players Australian people convicted of drug offences Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent Aviron Bayonnais players Brisbane Broncos players New South Wales Waratahs players People educated at Anglican Church Grammar School Queensland Country (NRC team) players Queensland Reds players Queensland Residents rugby league team players Redcliffe Dolphins players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Brisbane Rugby league wingers Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Brisbane Rugby union wings Australian expatriate rugby union players in France People educated at Wavell State High School Australian sportspeople convicted of crimes