Rodney Esekia Iona (born 17 August 1991) is a Samoan

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

footballer who currently plays as a

fly half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

and Centre for the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

in the Super Rugby Pacific 2022. He also plays for the

New Orleans Gold The New Orleans Gold, stylized as NOLA Gold, is a professional rugby union team based in New Orleans. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby. Since January 2020, Top 14, French rugby power ASM Clermont Auvergne has owned ...

in Major League Rugby (MLR) in the U.S. He previously represented the

Canberra Vikings The Canberra Vikings, formerly the Canberra Kookaburras, is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is based at Viking Park in Wanniassa, and is backed by the Tuggeranong Vikin ...

in the inaugural

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

Career

Originally from Melbourne, Iona made his way north to Australia's capital Canberra in an attempt to forge out a rugby career for himself. In 2011 he linked up with the

Tuggeranong Vikings The Tuggeranong Vikings are a rugby union club based in Tuggeranong, Australian Capital Territory. It is supported by 4 licensed clubs based in Wanniassa, Greenway, Conder, Chisholm. The club has been successful in local and national competiti ...

who play in the

ACTRU Premier Division The ACTRU Premier Division is a rugby union club competition based in Canberra, Australia, and conducted by the region's governing body, the ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union. It contains four Senior Grades of competition plus Colts, and is compet ...

while attending the academy. He represented the Brumbies at sevens and won the World Club Sevens Championship in 2013 and also played in the World Club 10s tournament in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. A spate of injuries for the Brumbies in the middle of the 2014 Super Rugby season saw Iona earn his first cap in a derby match against the in Sydney. His debut didn't go quite as well as he'd have liked with his first pass being intercepted which resulted in a Waratahs try. Despite this Iona was offered a full-time one-year contract with the Brumbies ahead of the

2015 Super Rugby season The 2015 Super Rugby season was the 20th season of Super Rugby and the fifth season featuring an expanded 15-team format. For sponsorship reasons, this competition was known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New ...

. Iona also played for the Canberra Vikings in the first ever National Rugby Championship in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

making 6 appearances. Iona joined French Rugby Pro D2 side

AS Béziers Hérault Association Sportive Béziers Hérault ( oc, Associacion Esportiva de Besièrs Erau), often referred to by rugby media simply by its location of Béziers, is a French rugby union club currently playing in the second level of the country's profes ...

in July 2016. He made 18 appearances in his first season, but suffered a serious neck injury after just four matches in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

that threatened his career. He was released by Béziers and joined Spanish

División de Honor de Rugby The División de Honor de Rugby is Spain's top level professional men's rugby union competition. The División de Honor de Rugby Championship is organised by the Federación Española de Rugby (Spanish Rugby Federation) and currently consists of 12 ...

side

UE Santboiana Unió Esportiva Santboiana is a Spanish rugby union club. The club was established in 1921 and currently competes in the División de Honor de Rugby competition, the highest level of Spanish club rugby. The club are based in Sant Boi de Llobrega ...

Super Rugby statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iona, Rodney 1991 births Living people AS Béziers Hérault players Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent Australian rugby union players ACT Brumbies players Canberra Vikings players Jersey Reds players Melbourne Rising players Rugby union centres Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Melbourne Samoa international rugby union players Samoan rugby union players Western Force players New Orleans Gold players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Australian expatriate sportspeople in Jersey Australian expatriate sportspeople in France Samoan expatriate sportspeople in France Samoan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Samoan expatriate sportspeople in Jersey