Paotonu and Johnsonville Hawks seeking consistency

Johnsonville second-five Olly Paotonu in typical attacking form, against the Upper Hutt Rams last year. Photo: Andy McArthur.

• By Steven White

When fit and firing, second-five Olly Paotonu is a key cog in Johnsonville’s ongoing success since their revival from competition back-marker to contender that started three seasons ago.

Paotonu says that with more consistency in results and staying composed during games they are not far off from challenging the top teams for championship honours.

“Our coaches Dallas, Andrew and Paul have been talking about ‘red head’ and ‘blue head’ thinking, said Paotonu this week ahead after their win this past Saturday over Old Boys University for the Bill Cavubati Bowl.

“When the pressure has been put on us we have going into red head mentality and struggled to shift the momentum back in our favour, and I think in the weekend we pushed through that and didn’t let the opposition back like in those recent games.”

Olly is referring to Saturday’s 51-2 scoreline, which saw Johnsonville take an early lead, only for OBU to come back with two tries and appear to be getting right back into the game, then for Johnsonville to refocus and pull clear again.

“The blue head is just about being composed and trying to ride out their purple patch that the other team gets and bring back momentum in our favour.”

“It was disappointing in the previous two weeks when we let big leads clip against Wainuiomata and Poneke.

Against Poneke, the Hawks were up 38-19 at one point, but the home side came back to win 41-38.

“We were up by two tries against Wainuiomata and the same sort of thing happened. Andrew Wells controlled the game well that day, and they came back and won 31-24.”

The other change that broke this pattern was that against OBU Johnsonville were able to come back fast, albeit fortuitously at first when lock Anthony Pettett picked up a loose ball and skirted 35 metres to score. Another try just before and one more after the break had the Hawks up 32-12 and they weren’t going to let it slip.

Paotonu scores for the Hawks in their clubrooms corner in the 2025 season opener against Paremata-Plimmerton. Photo: Steven White.

The upshot is that heading towards the halfway mark of this year’s round-robin 13-week Swindale Shield competition Johnsonville have a three win-three loss record to sit in eighth on 19 points.

With three of their remaining seven matches to come against currently lower ranked opposition – Avalon (at home), the Wellington Axemen (away) and Norths (away) – they in a strong position to at least hold that spot.

Two more of their home games are against Tawa and Petone, and if they can produce much more of that blue head thinking in these matches there is every reason they can climb higher.

The Hawks celebrate a try in their recent match against Ories in their Ash Pointon Cup game. Photo: Andy McArthur.

The immediate focus for the Hawks is on Avalon at home on Saturday.

“Avalon will be a good challenge, they are a physical side, and for the last couple of years we have struggled to beat them.

“We know we have a lot of X-factor and can put teams away, but another big aspect for this year has been about grinding teams down and outworking them.

“Our forwards have being putting a lot of focus on our set-piece and working hard in the tight stuff.”

Paotonu, whose father Dallas is part of the coaching staff, complimented the play of his teammates, including some of the overseas contingent.

Wing Finlay Sharp and No. 8 Regan Herbert joined Johnsonville in 2023 from Stroud in Gloucestershire, England. Finlay is the team’s captain this year.

One half of their Irish duo Nial Delahunt is back and playing well at fullback – scoring a popular runaway try in the second half against OBU.

Halfback Sukulu Cama is from Fiji and is settling into the club and competition.

First five Ken Kurihara has shown some nice touches.

“He joined us last season but had some injuries initially. He was playing for the Japanese sevens side on the world Rugby circuit and came to New Zealand and landed at Johnsonville on his own volition. His pre-game preparation is really thorough as well, while he is well travelled as he spent time growing up in England and then he went to Berkely in the States after that.”

Plus a core group of local homegrown players finding their spirit at Premier level, such as prop Lucas Aukuso. “He wasn’t going to play at the start of the year but he came down and he’s back and playing big minutes.”

New openisde flanker Louis Magalogo is from Auckland and was in Dunedin playing for Varsity and brings his own colourful try scoring celebrations which is apparently the thumbs up reference in the Gladiator movies.

Paotonu has been at the Hawks since 2021 when he transferred across from Old Boys University. He played the Covid season in 2020 for the OBU Premiers and prior to that was in the then crack OBU Green Colts side that won most of their games when he was there.

The move to Johnsonville was off his own steam, for more gametime at a fresh club, although he joked that is was due to one of his current coaches and workplace manager.

“My boss where I worked at the time at Kainga Ora was current Johnsonville backs coach Andrew Wharekura and he said if I wanted a job then I had to come play for Johnsonville!”

He made his Johnsonville Premiers debut in 2021 and was in a losing side in each of his first seven matches for the club. His first win for them came with a 27-13 victory over the Wellington Axemen.

Paotonu played every match at second-five in the 2022 Swindale Shield as Johnsonville finished 11^th with a 4/13 record, then were promptly bundled out of the Hardham Cup.

But it all picked up in 2023 – with Paotonu a regular starter for the Hawks as they won 10 matches and finished second in the Swindale Shield and made the Jubilee Cup semi-finals.

He played for Horowhenua-Kapiti in 2023, and last year went down to Southland for the representative season and played for the Southland Development team.

Paotonu Playing for Horowhenua-Kapiti in 2023. Photo: Steven White.

With two tries, two try assists several more clean breaks and offloads against Old Boys University, Paotonu is playing well this year after bringing up his 50^th cap for the Hawks last year.

Second five is his preferred position. “We have mostly had the same 12/13 combination the whole time I have been at Johnsonville with myself and Aukuso Tuitama. Someone reminded us in the weekend that was our 40^th game starting together.”

He is a former Wellington College player and his last year in the First XV was in 2017, in the team with current Johnsonville teammate Ish Perkins and others such as Naitoa Ah Kuoi, Taine Plumtree and Tom Maiava, as well as his two current flatmates and OBU players Josh Morgan Ranui and Reece Plumtree (2016 team).

Paotonu’s rugby future in unconfirmed, but for now he just wants to help Johnsonville maintain that consistency and go deep into the competition this season.

Johnsonville v Avalon Wolves, Saturday 2.45pm, Helston Park.

Paotonu scores the second of his two tries for Johnsonville against OBU on Saturday.