James So'oialo (born 2 March 1989) is a Samoan

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He 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� ...

for Horowhenua Kapiti in the

Heartland Championship The Heartland Championship is an annual Round-robin tournament, round-robin rugby union competition in men's domestic Rugby union in New Zealand, New Zealand rugby. First played in 2006, it is the third highest level of List of rugby union comp ...

. He made his international debut in 2011 when he was part of the Samoan team at the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

where he played in one match. He signed for Irish provincial rugby team

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

for the 2013/2014 season. On 26 October, after only having arrived in late September, Connacht released So'oialo from his contract on 'compassionate grounds', and he returned to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. He was included in the Melbourne Rising squad for the NRC 2019 season as a fly half.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:So'oialo, James 1989 births Living people Rugby union players from Wellington City New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent Samoan rugby union players Samoa international rugby union players Castres Olympique players Connacht Rugby players Wellington rugby union players Samoan expatriate rugby union players in Ireland Samoan expatriate rugby union players in France Rugby union players from Apia Rugby union centres Samoan expatriate rugby union players in Australia Melbourne Rising players Melbourne Rebels players 2011 Rugby World Cup players