Irving and Leota-Johnson in line for debuts as Lions look to disrupt Steamers in their last game

The Lions will be looking to up-end the Steamers when they host them in their final match of the season at Porirua Park on Saturday.

 Eleven months ago the Wellington Lions were on top of the domestic rugby world, having beaten Bay of Plenty 23-20 in a tightly contested final that went to extra-time.

On Saturday they host the same side again, only this time they are playing for pride and even a bonus point win won’t be sufficient for them to progress to the business rounds of the competition over the following three weeks.

The best they can do is play the disruptor role and make life difficult for the Steamers who are safely in the ‘top 8’ and currently fourth and playing to confirm and home quarter-final in front of their healthy support base at Tauranga.

The Lions have selected two players on their bench in line to make their NPC debuts.

Lock or blindside flanker Harry Irving played his second season for Old Boys University in 2025 and was in the initial New Zealand U20s squad earlier this year and played one junior international in May, against Argentina.

Harry Irving playing for the Centurions recently. Photo: Andy McArthur.

Openside flanker or No. 8 and former St Pat’s Town student David Leota-Johnson played his first full season for the Oriental-Rongotai Premiers and then stood out for the Wellington Centurions in their recent series of matches with some dynamic performances.

David Leota-Johnson playing for the Centurions recently. Photo: Andy McArthur.

In other changes from last week, James O’Reilly has been named to start at hooker for Penieli Poasa, PJ Sheck for Siale Lauaki at tighthead prop and Hugo Plummer for Akira Ieremia. Cody Lokotui moves to blindside flanker for Caleb Delany after Delany and Lauaki both failed HIA tests against Taranaki. In the backs, Tom Maiava replaces Kapu Broughton-Winterburn on the wing off the bench.

Several familiar names in the Steamers line-up starting with up in the stand with head coach Richard Watt and assistant coach James Porter, and on the field with MSP lock Naitoa Ah Kuoi and former Wellington club players, tighthead prop Benet Kumeroa (HOBM), Richard Judd (Pare-Plim/Wellington) and Reon Paul (Norths).

The Wellington Lions team to play Bay of Plenty is:

1. Xavier Numia (Ories)
2. James O’Reilly (HOBM)
3. PJ Sheck (Tawa)
4. Hugo Plummer (Tawa
5. Dominic Ropeti (Ories)
6. Cody Lokotui (Axemen)
7. Sione Halalilo (Ories)
8. Matolu Petaia (Tawa)
9. Kyle Preston (OBU)
10. Jackson Garden-Bachop (Norths)
11. Tom Maiava (Ories)
12. Julian Savea (Ories)
13. Losi Filipo (Petone)
14. Stanley Solomon (Petone)
15. Callum Harkin (OBU)

BENCH

16. Penieli Poasa (Ories)
17. Senio Sanele (Upper Hutt Rams)
18. Vili Tauofaga (HOBM)
19. Harry Irving (OBU)
20. David Leota-Johnson (Ories)
21. Nui Muriwai (HOBM)
22. H. Yamada (Japan)
23. Kapu Broughton-Winterburn (HOBM)

Wellington and Bay of Plenty will be meeting for the 40th time in the NPC on Saturday. Wellington has won 31 of their previous fixtures to Bay of Plenty’s six. There have been two draws.

The Wellington Lions have won their last seven matches in a row at home against Bay of Plenty which equals their record of consecutive victories first established between 1979 and 1991. So a win on Saturday will be a record-breaking eighth win over them at home. Bay of Plenty has not won in Wellington since beating the home side 31-24 in 2010.

As well as the final, they beat BoP 30-25 in round-robin play last year, this match being decided in golden point extra time.

The Lions and Bay of Plenty only met five times before the inaugural NPC season in 1976 (which Bay of Plenty won), including twice in 1912.

These matches were:

• 3 June 1912 at Wellington: Wellington won 40-3
• 21 August 1912 at Rotorua: Wellington won 24-9
• 30 June 1920 at Wellington: Wellington won 22-9 (Ranfurly Shield defence)
• 1 August 1969 at Wellington: Wellington won 18-8
• 2 September 1975 at Rotorua: Wellington won 25-22
• Their first NPC match in 1976 was an 18-18 draw.

Their second in 1977 was a 54-9 win to Wellington, with flanker Paul Quinn scoring a hat-trick and Warwick Proctor and Stu Wilson two each in an 11-try win.

For many seasons after that, Wellington either  won their matches the two sides never met as the Steamers spent most of the 1990s playing in the old NPC second division.

They resumed regular matches in 2001 with BoP winning 14-11. In 2002, the Lions won 74-12, with Tana Umaga, Paul Steinmetz and David Holwell scoring two tries each and first- David Holwell scoring 34 points.

Saturday’s match at Porirua Park kicks off at 2.05pm.