NPC Round 2 Wellington v Waikato – numbers and stats

Each week throughout the NPC, Hurricanes and Wellington statistician Peter Marriott will provide the numbers and statistics, records and happenings that you need to know about the game that has just played. Second up is the Wellington v Waikato match.

The Wellington Lions and Waikato have now met 49 times in the National Provincial Championship (NPC). Wellington has won 29 times to Waikato’s 20 times.

Of the 17 different sides Wellington has played in 50 years of NPC, Waikato is one of 10 they havenever drawn against.

Wellington has also beaten Northland 29 times but their most wins have been against Bay of Plenty and Taranaki:31 each.

The two sides have met on 28 occasions in Hamilton. The home side is slightly ahead with the number of wins: 15 to Wellington’s 13.

The Wellington Lions have won their last five matches on the trot against Waikato. This is now their best-ever winning sequence bettering the four in a row between 1984 and 1988 and again between 2003 and 2005.

For the second match in succession Waikato scored 24 points against the Lions and have in fact done so three times in the last four matches.

During the match Waikato became the first side to concede 1400 points against Wellington. The total now sits on 1402 points. Canterbury has conceded 1395 points.

Julian Savea captained the side in the absence of an unavailable Brad Shields. It was the fourth time Savea has led the side and he has yet to experience a loss. He is actually the third different Lions captain in successive matches – Du’Plessis Kirifi was in charge for the final three matches last year and Shields the first this year – but in the two matches before Kirifi, Peter Umaga-Jensen and Peter Lakai wore the captain’s armband respectively and so the Lions have had five captains in their last seven matches.

Savea scored a try, his 30th in his 76th appearance. It was his fourth against Waikato. Initially Savea’s try was disallowed by the on-field referee but after being referred to the TMO the original decision was reversed.

PJ Sheck was the first to score for the Lions: his second try in 38 matches.

Tjay Clarke has now scored 10 tries in 21 outings for Wellington. Two of those tries were scored in 2023 in the two pre-season Ranfurly Shield challenge matches. He scored one on debut against Horowhenua-Kapiti and his second was a week later against South Canterbury.

Akira Ieremia scored his second try in his 18th match.

Jackson Garden-Bachop scored a try: his 15th in his 102nd match for Wellington. Five conversions gave him 15 points for the match and took his overall tally of points to 803. Garden-Bachop is now second on Wellington’s all-time list of point scorers behind Allan Hewson who in 108 games between 1977 and 1986 accumulated 893 points. During this match Garden-Bachop passed John Gallagher who had scored 797 points in 88 matches between 1984 and 1990. In all matches against Waikato,

Garden-Bachop has scored 60 points, including two tries.

Four players (and one debutant) appeared for the first time this season. Siale Lauaki, Matolu Petaia, Penieli Poasa and Stanley Solomon all went on as substitutes.

The debutant was Esi Komaisavai who replaced Nui Muriwai after 43 minutes.

A total of 28 different players have been used in the first two matches, including three debutants.

There were three changes to the starting XV against Waikato from the one which started in the previous match against Canterbury. There were two changes in the backs and one in the forwards. Dominic Ropeti started in the No 8 jersey for the first time. His previous five starts had been at No 4 (once) and No 6 (four times).

Caleb Delany made his 50th appearance for Wellington. He had made his debut, off the bench, against Auckland, at Auckland, on 20 September 2020.

Kenshi Yamamoto, who was listed on the bench, did not get to play.

For Waikato Aaron Cruden scored a try and kicked a conversion. In NPC matches against Wellington Cruden has scored 14 points in the Waikato jersey and 16 points when he represented Manawatu.

It was Xavier Roe’s third try against Wellington. The previous two were scored in 2020 and 2023. Roe brought up his 50th appearance for Waikato.

Xavier Saifoloi scored his first try against Wellington.

Pita Anae-Ah Sue now has two tries against Wellington. His first was scored in the 2023 Quarterfinal match in Wellington.

Te Paea Cook-Savage kicked one conversion from three attempts: his first kick hit the lefthand upright. He has now accumulated 15 points against Wellington.

Ben O’Keeffe was in charge of his sixth NPC match which involved the Lions.

At the conclusion of Round 2 Wellington is in eighth place, up from 11th in Round 1.

Wellington’s overall record in the NPC is: played 515 matches, won 328 (63.7%), lost 175 and drawn 12.