David Joseph Solomona (born 26 January 1978) is a former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer, who last played for the

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. He was regularly amongst the top off-loaders in the competition.

Background

Solomona was born in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

and is of Samoan and Egyptian descent. He attended St. Paul's College, Auckland, a school known for consistently producing the best rugby league team in the national secondary school competition.

National Rugby League

Solomona started his career in Australia with the

Sydney City Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

making his first grade debut in round 16 of the

1999 NRL season The 1999 NRL season was the 92nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the second to be run by the National Rugby League. With the exclusion of the Adelaide Rams and Gold Coast Chargers, and the joint venture of the S ...

against

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. He played from the interchange bench for the Roosters in their 2000 NRL grand final loss to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

. He played for

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

in the

2000 Rugby League World Cup The 2000 Rugby League World Cup was the twelfth Rugby League World Cup, World Cup for men’s national rugby league teams, held between 28 October and 25 November and hosted between the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland and France. ...

. In 2001, Solomona signed for Parramatta. He played 25 games for the club in the

2001 NRL season The 2001 NRL season was the 94th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the fourth run by the National Rugby League. Also called the 2001 Telstra Premiership (due to sponsorship from Telstra Corporation) it was contested ...

as the club were runaway

Minor Premiers A minor premiership is the title given to the team which finishes a sporting competition first in the league standings after the regular season but prior to commencement of the finals in several Australian sports leagues. Origins The etymology ...

and set a number of point scoring records. Solomona played for the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

from the interchange bench in their shock 2001 NRL Grand Final loss to the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

Stadium Australia Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Ol ...

Super League

Solomona spent three years at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats where his skills helped keep them in the

. In 2004 he was named in the

Super League Dream Team The Super League Dream Team is an annually-selected rugby league All Star Team consisting of the players deemed to have been the best in their respective positions in the Super League competition. The team is selected by a panel of journalists and ...

. He helped

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 ...

to defeat Australia to win the 2005 Rugby League Tri Nations tournament. Solomona signed for the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...

on 24 October 2006 for the 2007 season. He was the Bulls only ever-present player in 2007, making 32 appearances in his first year at the club. Blessed with tremendous ball handling skills he also has the ability to score tries himself and he scored 14 tries in 2007, including a hat trick. Solomona missed the first 5 games of 2008 due to injury picked up in pre-season. He again represented Samoa in the

2008 Rugby League World Cup The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth World Cup for men’s rugby league national teams. It was held between 26 October and 22 November and was won by New Zealand, who defeated Australia 34–20 in the final in one of the greatest ...

. Solomona played in the 2010 Challenge Cup Final victory over the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. Solomona continued to feature in the

squad throughout the 2011 season. He was mainly brought on as a replacement making good use of his strength and ball handling skills to make in-roads into the opposing defence. His tenure with the Warrington Wolves came to a close due to an injury he suffered in the 2012 season, causing him to retire before returning to Australia.

References

External links

Bradford Bulls profileBradford sign David SolomonaSolomona tipped to be hot stuff
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solomona, David 1978 births Living people 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen Bradford Bulls players Junior Kiwis players New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand expatriate rugby league players in England Parramatta Eels players People educated at St Paul's College, Auckland Richmond Bulldogs players Rugby league players from Auckland Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows Samoa national rugby league team players Samoan rugby league players

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

Sydney Roosters players Wakefield Trinity players Warrington Wolves players