{"id":10926,"date":"2026-08-19T17:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catalansdragons.com\/?p=10926"},"modified":"2026-08-19T17:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:20:57","slug":"luciano-leilua-joins-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalansdragons.com\/en\/news\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\/","title":{"rendered":"Luciano Leilua joins Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Catalans Dragons are pleased to announce the signing of Luciano Leilua from the 2027 season.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The 30-year-old Samoan second-row has signed a three-year deal with the club.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Luciano Leilua : &#8220;I\u2019m really excited to join his great club and its history. Looking forward to meeting my new teammates and also everyone at the club ! My family and I can\u2019t wait to get over there and enjoy what the club have to offer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A product of the St George Illawarra Dragons academy, he quickly established himself in the first team squad and made his NRL debut in 2016. After three successfull seasons with St George, he went to join the Wests Tigers before moving to the North Queensland Cowboys. Consistent throughout his career, he returned to St Gerge Illawara in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>A powerful and explosive forward, Luciano Leilua has scored 32 tries in 181 NRL appearances since making his debut in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He has also earned six caps for Samoa, scoring a try against Australia in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>John Cartwright : &#8220;He is an experienced powerful back row who has his best footy in front of him. He&#8217;s good feet for a big man and a strong offload game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Luciano Leilua : CV express<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Date of birth<\/strong> : 8 June 1996<br \/>\n<strong>Age<\/strong> : 30 years-old<br \/>\n<strong>Height<\/strong> : 188 cm<br \/>\n<strong>Weight<\/strong> : 114 kg<br \/>\n<strong>Position<\/strong> : Second row<br \/>\n<strong>Professional debut<\/strong> : St George Illawara vs Brisbane Broncos, 4 August 2016<br \/>\n<strong>Clubs stats<\/strong> : St George Illawara (2016 \/ 2018-2019 \/ 2024-2026) : 98 appearances, 13 tries | Wests Tigers (2020-2022) : 56 appearances, 13 tries | North Queensland Cowboys (2022-2023) : 24 appearances, 5 tries<br \/>\n<strong>International caps<\/strong> : Samoa : 6 appearances, 1 try<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10942\" src=\"https:\/\/catalansdragons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Leulai-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2500\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Catalans Dragons are pleased to announce the signing of Luciano Leilua from the 2027 season. The 30-year-old Samoan second-row has signed a three-year deal with the club. &nbsp; Luciano Leilua : &#8220;I\u2019m really excited to join his great club and its history. Looking forward to meeting my new teammates and also everyone at the club [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":10940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Luciano Leilua joins Dragons - Les Dragons Catalans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/catalansdragons.com\/en\/news\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Luciano Leilua joins Dragons - Les Dragons Catalans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Catalans Dragons are pleased to announce the signing of Luciano Leilua from the 2027 season. The 30-year-old Samoan second-row has signed a three-year deal with the club. &nbsp; Luciano Leilua : &#8220;I\u2019m really excited to join his great club and its history. Looking forward to meeting my new teammates and also everyone at the club [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/catalansdragons.com\/en\/news\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Les Dragons Catalans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T15:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T15:20:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/catalansdragons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LeuLaiSite-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2880\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1895\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jheraud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jheraud\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6b5e9c92857a7843a97d463f865fc7f\"},\"headline\":\"Luciano Leilua joins Dragons\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-19T15:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-19T15:20:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/LeuLaiSite-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/catalansdragons.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/luciano-leilua-joins-dragons\\\/\",\"name\":\"Luciano Leilua joins Dragons - 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