NPC Round 4 Wellington v Manawatu – numbers and stats

Manawatu’s Brayden Iose and Wellington’s Akira Ieremia grapple for possession in their match on Sunday. 

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. Next up is the Wellington v Manawatu fourth round match from Palmerston North on Sunday.

Round 4 v Manawatu: Lost 28-38

Before I continue I will disclose the fact I was born in Palmerston North in the first half of last century and have mixed feelings about the result.

The Wellington Lions and Manawatu have now met 31 times in the NPC. Wellington has won 22 matches to Manawatu’s nine.

There have been 17 matches played in Palmerston North: Wellington has won 11 and Manawatu six.

Manawatu’s win brought to an end a sequence of six matches in a row won by Wellington. Their previous loss was at home at Wellington in 2016 when Manawatu recorded their highest score in  beating their hosts 50-28.

Manawatu scored first after 17 minutes and remained in front on the scoreboard for the rest of the match. At one stage they were ahead by 24 points before Wellington fought back to eventually lose by 10 points.

Manawatu have now won two of their four matches played in 2025. Last year they won just one of the nine they played and two from eight the year prior to that. In 2022 they lost all 10 matches.

The Lions have scored 28 points on 18 occasions in NPC matches (including four times against Manawatu) for 12 wins and six losses.

On the other hand they have conceded 38 points five times for four losses and a draw.

Wellington has lost two matches in succession for the first time since losing to Canterbury and Northland in August 2022.

The Lions have now conceded 645 tries in matches played away from home, and 646 tries in matches played at home venues.

The Lions made four changes to their starting XV from the one which started against Otago last week. There were two changes in the backs and two in the forwards.

Three players, namely Asafo Aumua, Sione Lauaki and Stanley Solomon, made their first start of the season following their previous appearances having been off the bench.

Hibiki Yamada made his debut for Wellington when he replaced Stanley Solomon in the 72nd minute. Yamada is the 30th different player to make an appearance in 2025 and the fourth debutant.

And speaking of young Solomon, he crossed the try-line three times during the match, between the 29th and 67th minute. His was the 22nd instance of a Wellington player scoring three tries in a NPC match and he is the 21st player to do so. Hosea Gear twice scored three tries. Solomon is also the 101st player to score two or more tries for Wellington in a NPC match: he now has four tries in 12 appearances.

Solomon will no doubt go on to score many more tries for Wellington and will probably pick up more than one in a match on the odd occasion. For now though he is one of five Lions players to have scored three tries in a NPC match but never two, or more than three. The others are: Brian McGrattan

(1984), David Hansen (1988), Roy Kinikinilau (2005) and Taine Plumtree (2021).

Stanley Solomon is the first player to score three tries in a match against Manawatu since Steve Pokere achieved a hat-trick at the old Athletic Park on 3 October 1987. Wellington made their highest NPC score against Manawatu in that match winning 56-24 and the match aggregate of 80 points still remains the record for Wellington/Manawatu clashes. Before Pokere however, Mike Clamp had scored four tries (on 6 October 1984) in their NPC clash in Palmerston North.

Losi Filipo scored his 14th try in 30 appearances.

After his previous two starts had been in the Number 14 jersey, Tom Maiava switched to the other wing.

After being initially listed on the bench, James O’Reilly was withdrawn and replaced by Penieli Poasa

Matt Proctor celebrated the 13th anniversary of his first match for Wellington. On 24 August 2012 he had made his debut against Manawatu at Palmerston North.

I feel I should mention a former connection the Lions head coach and two of his assistants have with Wellington/Manawatu rivalry. Trent Renata scored a try in 2017 and kicked two conversions in 2018 against Manawatu and James Blackwell scored a try in 2018. Nehe Milner-Skudder scored a try for Manawatu in 2017.

For Manawatu TK Howden scored his first try against Wellington.

Taniela Filimone scored a double to go with the try he scored against Wellington in the match last year.

James Tofa was the star for Manawatu when, like Stanley Solomon, he scored a hat-trick of tries. He also scored one in last year’s match. Tofa’s tries were scored between the 22nd and 64th minute which in terms of playing time I reckon took him four minutes (give or take) longer than Solomon.

Tofa’s efforts for Manawatu against Wellington have been bettered though. In Palmerston North on 5 October 2016 Antonio Kiri Kiri dotted down four times

Brett Cameron added four points to his previous 17 for Manawatu. When his 18 points for Canterbury are included he has a total of 39 in all matches against Wellington.

Drew Wild (four points) opened his account against Wellington.

Manawatu’s win took them to eighth place in the Standings, up from 10th position in the previous round.

Paul Williams controlled his ninth match which involved Wellington. His first match in charge was way back in 2015 but his most recent match had been three years ago in 2022. It was his first Wellington/Manawatu fixture.

Manawatu celebrated Old Timers’ Day and before the start of the match past players lined up to form a tunnel as their team ran onto the field.

With their win Manawatu became the new holder of the Coronation Cup which Wellington had held since 2017.

Wellington’s loss also meant they slipped down to 11th place in the Standings having been in eighth position for the previous two rounds.