Wellington Lions v Bay of Plenty facts and figures

Stanley Solomon was Wellington’s top try scorer in 2025 with eight tries and finished the regular season in second-equal place on the try scorers list.

Each week throughout the NPC, Hurricanes and Wellington statistician Peter Marriott provides 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 Bay of Plenty last round match from Porirua Park this past Saturday.

Photos by Braydz Media

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Round 10 v Bay of Plenty: Lost 26-33

The Wellington Lions have finished in 10th place in the Standings and so will not progress through to the Quarter-finals.

This is disappointing considering in the previous three years they were Champions in 2022, beaten Semi-finalist in 2023 and Champions once more last season.

In fact, Wellington has experienced their second-worst season ever in terms of matches lost. This year they lost seven of their 10 matches but in 2014 they lost every one of their first nine before winning their final one.

This is Wellington’s earliest exit from a NPC season since 2011 when their final day of play was 26 August.

Wellington and Bay of Plenty have now met on 40 occasions. Wellington has won 31 times to Bay of Plenty’s seven wins. There have been two drawn matches including the 18-18 result in their first-ever encounter in 1976, the first year of the NPC which Bay of Plenty won.

The Lions record 31 wins against Bay of Plenty is equal to the number of NPC wins they have against Taranaki.

Wellington hosted Bay of Plenty for the 22nd time. The home side has won 18 of those matches: Bay of Plenty now has three wins under their belt. The drawn match was at the old Athletic Park in 1976.

The loss to Bay of Plenty brought to an end Wellington’s run of four wins in a row against them.

Interestingly the two most recent matches went into extra time and with seven minutes remaining in this match (the score was 26-26), there was the chance the two sides would have to play additional time for the third match in succession.

Bay of Plenty scored 33 points in this match. In their previous three wins their scores (in order) were 31-24, 32-0, 33-32 and now 33-26.

Bay of Plenty had not beaten Wellington away from home since their 31-24 win at the then named Westpac Stadium in 2010.

During the match Bay of Plenty brought up 50 tries against Wellington in away matches. The total now stands at 51.

And during the match Wellington also conceded their 11,000th point in all NPC matches. The total now stands at 11,026 points.

Wellington ended 2025 having had 49 tries scored against them. This equals their record for most tries conceded in a season: in 2014. Believe it or not, in their 10 matches played in 1980 they conceded just nine tries.

This season the Lions had 337 points scored against them, the most since opposition sides aggregated 338 in 2016. Their worst season ever was in 2014 when they conceded 381 points.

In 2025 the Lions scored 321 points made up of 46 tries, 37 conversions and five penalty goals. The 337 points conceded were made up of 49 tries, 36 conversions and six penalties. And before you say those figures do not add up, consider both sets of numbers include a penalty try.

Those five penalty goals by the Lions are the fewest they have ever scored in a season “bettering” the seven kicked in 1977. And the six conceded are the fewest ever “bettering” the eight kicked in 1978 and 2023.

A total of 229 opposition players appeared against the Lions this season.

The Lions made five changes to their starting line-up compared to that which started last week against Taranaki. There was one change in the backs and four in the forwards.

Julian Savea scored his 31st try in his 83rd appearance for Wellington. Six of his tries have been against Bay of Plenty. He scored two in the match played in 2022, another one during last year’s regular season and then another double in the Final against Bay of Plenty.

Julian Savea has now led the Lions on nine occasions. He has won six matches and lost three.

Sione Halalilo’s try was his sixth in 26 matches but first against Bay of Plenty.

For the third time this season, Stanley Solomon crossed for two (or more) tries to take his total in 18 matches to nine. It was his first against Bay of Plenty.

Solomon is the first Wellington player to score two or more tries in a match on three occasions in the same season since Hosea Gear did so in 2009. Gear actually scored three tries in a match twice and two, once. Solomon scored three in a match once and two twice.

Jackson Garden-Bachop kicked six points to take his total in 110 matches to 871. He now lies just 23 points short of becoming the highest point scorer in the history of Wellington rugby. The record of 893 points is currently in the hands of Allan Hewson. Wellington has completed their matches for 2025 so Garden-Bachop will have to wait until next season to usurp the record.

In 11 matches against Bay of Plenty, Garden-Bachop has scored 72 points. It was the first time he was on the losing side.

When he missed his fourth kick, it brought to an end 14 successful goal attempts in a row spread over the last three matches.

Five players appeared in all 10 of Wellington’s matches but only Garden-Bachop started in all of them Unsurprisingly, he played the most minutes: 767 out of a possible 800.

Cody Lokotui made his first start for the Lions, in his fifth match.

Dominic Ropeti made his first start in jersey #5 having made his 11 previous starts in jersey #4 (two times), jersey #6 (four times), jersey #7 (once) and jersey #8 (four times).

Harry Irving and David Leota-Johnson both made their debut off the bench. They took the number of players to have made an appearance for Wellington this season to 37, 10 of which were debutants.

Making his 78th appearance for Wellington (off the bench), James O’Reilly had previously played 17 matches for Bay of Plenty in 2016 and 2017.

For Bay of Plenty, Charlie Sinton scored two tries, his first against Wellington.

Fehi Fineanganofo and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black also scored their first try against Wellington. McGarvey-Black came off the bench in the 62nd minute and scored his try a minute later.

Reon Paul’s try was his second against Wellington. His first was scored at Rotorua in 2023. He also came off the bench in this match but had to wait 11 minutes before scoring his try.

Seamus Bardoul kicked eight points, his first against Wellington.

Richard Judd played for Wellington in 2021 and 2022 scoring two tries. His first, in 2021, was against Bay of Plenty in Rotorua.  In 2019, when he was earlier with Bay of Plenty, he scored a try against Wellington, at Rotorua.

Naitoa Ah Kuoi was another Bay of Plenty player who had represented Wellington previously: in 2019 and 2020.

By sheer coincidence, today (Tuesday 7 October) is Ah Kuoi’s 26th birthday.

Bay of Plenty coach Richard Watt was also a previous Wellington representative playing 18 matches between 1989 and 1999.

Referee Doctor Stu Curran was in charge of his seventh match which involved the Lions. It was his third match in 2025, all of which were played in Porirua.

Wellington’s record after 50 years of NPC rugby is: played 523, won 330 (63.1%), lost 181 and drawn 12.

In those 50 years Wellington has scored 1,828 tries,1,251 conversions,976 penalties and 33 drop goals for a total of 14,196 points.

Until next season.