Denny Solomona

Denny Solomona (born 27 September 1993) is a rugby footballer who plays rugby union as a winger for the Sale Sharks in the Aviva Premiership and England at international level. He previously played rugby league as a winger for the Melbourne Storm Under-20s, London Broncos and the Castleford Tigers. He played for Samoa at international rugby league.

Denny Solomona
Personal information
Born (1993-09-27) 27 September 1993
Auckland, New Zealand
Height6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight16 st 7 lb (105 kg)
Playing information
Rugby league
PositionWing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2014 London Broncos 21 10 0 0 40
2015–16 Castleford Tigers 45 60 0 0 240
Total 66 70 0 0 280
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2016 Samoa 1 0 0 0 0
Rugby union
PositionWing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2016– Sale Sharks 88 46 0 0 230
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2017– England 5 1 0 0 5
As of 1 November 2019
Source: [1][2]

Youth

Solomona was born and brought up in Auckland, and was educated at St Peter's College where he was a member of the school's Rugby Union First XV and won the Boris Shroj Cup in 2010 as the top try scorer.[3]

Rugby League

In 2012, Solomona became a member of the Melbourne Storm Rugby League franchise being recruited out of Melbourne's youth system. He only played 13 games during the 2012 National Youth Competition season, with a fractured fibula in Round 13. Nevertheless, the 19-year-old scored eight tries from those 13 games. Solomona joined the Melbourne Storm's senior squad in 2013.[4]

Solomona signed for Super League side London Broncos in January 2014 after being released from his contract with Melbourne Storm.[5] Following the club's relegation, it was announced that he would join Castleford Tigers at the end of the season.[6]

In 2016, Solomona scored a record-breaking 37th try in a single Super League season in Castleford's Super 8s win over Catalans. The try broke a 12-year record held by former dual-international, Lesley Vainikolo.[7] Solomona finished the season with a total of 40 tries along with another 2 in the Challenge Cup competition.[8] On 8 October 2016 Solomona made his International début for Samoa in their historical test match against Fiji in Apia.

Rugby Union

On 13 December 2016, it was confirmed that Solomona had retired from rugby league, with two years still remaining on his contract with Castleford Tigers, to switch to rugby union, and join Sale Sharks in the Aviva Premiership. The move was subject to a legal dispute which was concluded out of court as Sale paid Castleford some £200,000 in compensation.[9] On 29 March 2017, having enjoyed a prolific start to his career with Sale (10 tries in 11 appearances), Solomona declared himself available for international selection with England.[10] He was subsequently called up to the senior England squad by Eddie Jones for their 2017 summer tour of Argentina and came on as a sub in the opening test and scored the winning try on his debut.l[11]

International tries
As of 7 July 2019 [12]
TryOpposing teamLocationVenueCompetitionDateResultScore
1 ArgentinaSan Juan, ArgentinaEstadio San Juan del Bicentenario2017 Tour of Argentina10 June 2017Win38 – 34

Influences

Solomona feels that meeting senior players can be important for the motivation and development of school age players.[13]

References
  1. loverugbyleague.com
  2. Rugby League Project
  3. St Peter's College Magazine 2010, p. 96.
  4. Denny Solomona, Official Website of the Melbourne Storm Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved 9 July 2013)
  5. "London Broncos sign Ben Ross and Denny Solomona". BBC Sport. 17 January 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  6. "Super League: Denny Solomona to leave London Broncos and join Castleford Tigers". Sky Sports. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  7. "Catalans 28-34 Castleford: Solomona sets Super League try scoring record". 17 September 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  8. "Castleford 40-26 Widnes: Denny Solomona breaks Super League record for most tries in a season". 25 September 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  9. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/16/castleford-sale-settlement-denny-solomona
  10. "Solomona ready to play for England". planetrugby.com. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  11. "England v Argentina: Dylan Hartley, Joe Launchbury & George Ford in squad". BBC Sport. 20 April 2017. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  12. "Denny Solomona". 7 July 2019.
  13. https://www.rugbypass.com/news/mental-illness-is-not-something-you-can-switch-on-and-off-its-a-constant-battle-that-you-do-fight-against
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