Wellington Lions v Taranaki Facts & Figures

Round 9 v Taranaki: Lost 20-39

The Wellington Lions and the Taranaki Bulls have now met 38 times in the NPC: Wellington has won 31 matches and Taranaki has now won seven. There have been no draws.

This was the 19th match hosted by Taranaki but just their fifth win. However, they have won two on the trot at home for the first time: their last home match was at Inglewood in 2021 when they beat the Lions 32-26.

The two sides last met at New Plymouth in 2018 when Wellington prevailed 34-10.

The ground at New Plymouth has been renamed Stadium Taranaki after being known as Yarrow Stadium from 2002 to 2019.

Wellington scored two tries against Taranaki, the fewest in any match since they touched down just once at New Plymouth in 2009. Wellington lost that match 16-29 which is in fact the last time they had lost at New Plymouth.

The Lions 20 points is their lowest score in a match against Taranaki since their 19-14 win at New Plymouth in 2015.

During the match Wellington and Taranaki brought up 2,000 points between them and the aggregate now stands at 2,003. Combined they have scored 251 tries, 166 conversions, 149 penalties and five drop goals.

An interesting situation occurred during the warm-up before the game. Akira Ieremia was in the starting line-up but was injured necessitating stitching. John Falloon, who was listed on the bench, started instead but was subbed off after seven minutes by Ieremia. This was Falloon’s first official start for the Lions, in his second match, and he was required to return to the field just six minutes later to replace an injured Caleb Delany. Falloon finished the match.

Delany was one of three Wellington players to leave the field for an HIA. The other two were Siale Lauaki and Ieremia: all three failed their assessment.

Dominic Ropeti scored his seventh try in his 29th match.

Callum Harkin’s try was his fourth in 18 matches for the Lions.

Both Ropeti (two) and Harkin (three) had scored tries in the previous match against Southland. By coincidence, Harkin’s try against Taranaki was scored at the 80+1 minute mark, the exact same time as his third try against Southland was scored.

Jackson Garden-Bachop kicked 10 points to take his tally for the season to 82. In all matches for the Lions, he has accumulated 865 points in 109 appearances. Forty-nine of those points have been scored against Taranaki.

Garden-Bachop is now just 29 points short of becoming Wellington’s all-time top points scorer. With 893 points Allan Hewson is the holder of that record and will continue to do so until at least next season. Wellington has one more match (!) to play in 2025 and the chances of Garden-Bachop scoring 29 points is nigh on impossible. Next year though.

Kapu Broughton-Winterburn made his first start for the Lions.

Matolu Petaia started in jersey #4 having made his only previous start in 11 matches in jersey #8.

Wellington made four changes to the starting XV from that which started in the previous match against Southland. There was one change in the backs and three in the forwards.

Four Taranaki players namely Bradley Slater, Kaylum Boshier, Jesse Parete and Logan Crowley all scored their first try against Wellington.

The fifth try was a penalty try: the first conceded by Wellington to Taranaki.

This was only the third time (in 38 matches) Taranaki has scored five or more tries in a match against Wellington. They have won on all three occasions: five tries in their 38-22 at Wellington in 2014 and seven tries in their 54-31 win at Wellington in 2016.

Taranaki could have had a sixth try. In the 20th minute Adam Lennox was awarded an on-field try but it was overruled by the TMO (Richard Kelly) because the player had not pressed the ball down.

Josh Jacomb kicked 12 points to add to the four he had scored in last year’s match.

Referee James Doleman was in charge of his 11th NPC match which involved the Wellington Lions. It was his second Taranaki/Wellington match, both of which were hosted by Taranaki. The first was also lost by Wellington, 26-32 at Inglewood in 2021.

One of the Assistant Referees, Warwick Lahmert, scored a try for Taranaki during the match played in 2018.

Taranaki regained the John F Henning Trophy having lost it to Wellington in 2022.

Wellington has slipped to 10th in the Standings, down from ninth the previous week. With one round of regular play remaining, Wellington is in danger of missing out on a Quarter-final match.

Wellington’s overall record in the NPC is: played 522 matches, won 330 (63.2%), lost 180 and drawn 12.