Pakai Turia RIP – extremely gifted and consistently exciting

• By Steven White & Adam Julian

Extremely gifted and consistently exciting – Pakai Turia, has tragically passed away it has been announced on Monday afternoon.

A leading player in the Wellington College First XV, Turia spent eight seasons playing first-five and fullback for Pōneke between 2014-2022, with one additional season in 2020 for Hutt Old Boys Marist, and for the Wellington Lions in the NPC and Horowhenua-Kapiti in the Heartland Championship.

It is understood he has passed away in Brisbane, where he has been living and playing in the Queensland Premier rugby in 2023 and 2024.

Turia playing in the 2021 Hardham Cup final – he scored 17 points in a dramatic 24-17 extra-time win over Petone.

A grandson of politician Tariana Turia, who also recently passed away, Turia spent his formative years in Whanganui before moving to Wellington and attending Wellington College.

He left Wellington College at the end of 2013, after leading his school First XV team to the Wellington Premiership title against rivals St Pat’s Silverstream. Talking with Club Rugby in 2016, he said he rated that final win as a career highlight.

“We lost to them in 2012, but 2013 was my last year at school and I got the Player of the Match in the final and kicked the winning penalty.”

His performance to drive the Wellington College First XV to the 2013 Premiership title is the stuff of legend. In the final against Silverstream he kicked a flawless seven goals from seven attempts and that last penalty was from a mile out that made it 25-22 when the ground announcer warned in the event of a draw that the opposition would take the title.

His display in a 29-0 whitewash of Scots College in the semifinal showed his full arsenal of tricks. Searing breaks, calculated kicks, and sweeping passes, Turia had the ball on a dime. He was utterly mesmerising, as good in this game as future All Black Lima Sopoaga had been at Wellington College a handful of years earlier.

Turia (front, second from the left) and Wellington College after their Premiership final win in August 2013.

Turia was a member of the Wellington U19 team that won the inaugural Graham Mourie Cup tournament in Taupo in 2014.

He became Pōneke’s regular first-five in his first Senior season in 2014, making his debut against Johnsonville in round one of that year’s Swindale Shield.

From then until his last year in 2022, Turia was an automatic first-choice selection for the red and blacks, and ran on to play his 100^th start in July 2021, also against Johnsonville.

Turia (back row in black jacket) and his teammates after another famous win – this time over Marist St Pat’s in the Battle of Kilbirnie in 2022. Photo: Andy McArthur. 

In 2015 he made a move to fullback, where he played on and off throughout his career. In the same 2016 interview with Club Rugby noted above he said he was enjoying the move.

“I’m loving playing there at the moment – more space, more freedom,” he said at the time.

“This is my first proper year at fullback. I was always a first five-eighth growing up in junior rugby and at Wellington College and mostly first-five in my first two years at Pōneke.

“At first I wasn’t too keen to play fullback because I didn’t back my speed, but the coaches said they needed someone at fullback with a good kick-return and who could attack the line and I was that player. I had my first few games and it went well, so they’ve decided to keep me there.”

When Turia was playing well and expressing himself, he was one of the most exciting players to watch in club rugby in recent years. With those attributes above, he often ignited games and his speed and vision more often than not had opposition defences back-peddling.

He could  be sensational one moment, haphazard the next. But the good far outweighed the bad. His intuition for playing what was in front of him was vastly superior to most in Wellington Club Rugby leading to his selection for the Wellington Lions.

Above: trytime for Turia against Wainuiomata in 2021, leaving several defenders in his wake including Peter Umaga-Jensen. 

At the time he was also studying to become an electrical engineer, after working as a plumber after he left school as a member of the WRFU Academy.

Turia played 10 matches for the Wellington Lions between 2016-18, while also playing numerous matches for other Wellington representative teams such as the Centurions, Wellington Development and Wellington Māori.

In 2019 he played for Horowhenua-Kapiti, making three further first-class appearances.

His club record on our database shows he played136 games, scored 901 points for 78 wins.

He also had a season with Hutt Old Boys Marist in 2020

In 2023, Turia moved to Brisbane and joined the Sunnybank Cup in the Queensland Premier Hospitals Cup competition.