Some School Leavers to Watch in Wellington club rugby 2026

• By Steven White & Adam Julian

Each year a new crop of players leaves the school gates and joins the senior club rugby ranks.

There is always a core group of promising school leavers making their debuts in Wellington club rugby in the early rounds of the season, either in the Colts or Premier Reserve competitions or in the Premier Swindale Shield.

Below are some rookie names to keep an eye on in 2026.

Before we launch into it, it must be re-emphasised that this is a guide only and by no means a definitive list of names. Every club has been contacted for input. A read of this corresponding article every year it has been done shows some players mentioned haven’t kicked on as perhaps anticipated and others have been mentioned in passing only but have quickly become key players for their clubs and in higher teams.

The season hasn’t even begun, yet one school leaver has already made a huge impression. In February, Feilding High School’s Rupeni Raviyawa was named player of the tournament at the National Club Sevens, won by his club Hutt Old Boys’ Marist. In the final at Ngāti Toa Domain, he scored two tries in a 19-12 victory over hosts Paremata-Plimmerton. Raviyawa was the talisman for the Feilding High School First XV, Hurricanes Regional champions for the past two years and National Top Four runners-up in 2025. He scored 37 tries in 40 games and was one of the few from the 2025 New Zealand Secondary Schools team to return with distinction from their disastrous tour of Australia, where they conceded 136 points in two tests. Raviyawa scored three tries across both games. He embodies everything expected from a dynamic Fijian loose forward and could score a hatful of tries off the back of the Eagles’ “beast-mode” scrum.

Rupeni Raviyawa playing for Hutt Old Boys Marist in February’s NZ Club 7s Nationals tournament. Photo: Andy McArthur.

The First XV of St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, were imperious Wellington Premiership winners in 2025, finishing the round-robin unbeaten and accounting for Wellington College 35-14 in the final. Captain and flanker Elijah Solomona scored two tries and was named College Sport Wellington Rugby Player of the year, selected for the New Zealand Barbarians. Solomona is a massive acquisition for Wainuiomata, who have struggled to attract leading young talent. Furthermore, his older brother, Upper Hutt Rams midfield powerhouse Emmanuel Solomona, is set to join him in green and black.

Wianuiomata-bound Elijah Solomona brings the house down in last August’s Wellington First XV final with one of his two tries. Photo: Andy McArthur.

Palmerston North Boys’ High School boasted a freewheeling First XV in 2025 that won the Super 8, arguably the toughest competition in the country, for the first time since 2005. Two players from that side are heading to the capital to study at Victoria University and represent Old Boys University: Hunter Kennedy and Alex Palazzo.

Nicknamed the “Piopio Express,” fullback Hunter Kennedy regularly scored long-range tries, with his most memorable efforts coming against St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, Hamilton Boys’ High School, and just before halftime in the Super 8 final against Rotorua Boys’ High School. His defence was equally impressive, with last-ditch efforts that could teach Ethan Hunt of Mission Impossible fame a thing or two about defusing situations. He was selected for the New Zealand Barbarians. His cousin, Ashton Steere, a winger from St Patrick’s College Silverstream, is playing cricket and not immediately rejoining the rugby field. Both are related to the 1930s All Black Dick Steere.

Loose forward Alex Palazzo was Palmerston North captain and Hurricanes Under-18 MVP. Industrious, composed, and skillful, Palazzo is cut from the same cloth as Hurricane Brayden Iose, though he’s not as big or athletic.

A cast of promising props have come out of St Pat’s Town in recent years – think Siale Lauaki (plus Senio Sanele, who attended Silverstream – and this year another name coming to a front row near you is Ioane Aukusitino. The specialist tighthead prop is a strong scrummager and ball carrier at school and age group level and joins Marist St Pat’s where his new home ground at Evans Bay Park will be a seamless transition and his step up to senior rugby could be too.

Ioane Aukusitino in open country playing for St Pat’s Town against St Pat’s Silverstream last July. Photo: Andy McArthur.

Old Boys University and Pōneke have attracted stellar southern talent in the form of Jeremiah Tuhega-Vaitupu and Lachie Earl. Tuhega-Vaitupu was part of an imposing King’s High School, Dunedin First XV that lost the Southern Schools Championship final 27-26 to Southland Boys’ High School on an improbable 45-metre drop goal by New Zealand Secondary Schools first five-eighth Jimmy Taylor, the last act of a dramatic match.

Lachie Earl on his way to the tryline in a recent pre-season match for OBU against Massey. Photo: Steven White.

Tuhega-Vaitupu played second-five for most of 2025 but also covered loose forward and wing, similar to Wellington Lion and Ories Jubilee Cup winner Sione Halalilo at Scots College. Tuhega-Vaitupu was selected for the New Zealand Māori U18 Ngā Whatukura side. He also excels in league, touch, volleyball, and academics. The deputy head boy is enrolled to study architecture at Victoria University. Old Boys University Jubilee Cup winner Māori All Black Caleb Delany (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) followed a similar path from Nelson nearly a decade ago.

Lachie is an apt name for a lad who stands six feet eight and plays in the second row. From the same bloodline as 1987 Rugby World Cup winner and Canterbury legend Andy Earl (126 games, 1983-1992, 87 wins, 32 tries), Earl was a sports captain and a prominent figure in the St Bede’s College First XV. Selected for the Crusaders Under-18 squad, he is highly rated by his 2025 coach, former All Black and Highlanders hard man Elliot Dixon, who said that he’s a leader with a lot of skill and the obvious benefit of height. He will be even better, Dixon believes, when he puts on more size.

Edward Weatherstone doesn’t lack size. The Hurricanes Under-18 lock led Wairarapa’s Rathkeale College to the semi-finals of the Wellington premiership and on a memorable pre-season tour of South Africa, where they won three out of four matches. However, it is understood that Weatherstone’s start to his senior career at new club OBU will be delayed with injury.

On the subject of returning from injuries, two other players who are now second year out of school but whose senior careers have barely got underway because of season-long injuries in 2025 are Wesley Faitele and Thompson Tukapua, both at Petone. Faitele is a wing/fullback and was head boy of Taita College and College Sport Wellington’s All-Rounder of the Year in 2024 but missed last year. He was back in February playing for the Wellington Academy team and last week was in Taupo with the NZ U20s camp. First-five Tukapua started last year’s Swindale Shield but a serious knee injury in round two against Tawa sidelined him for the remainder of the year.

Petone always attracts a large contingent of Silverstream leavers, with current Rugby Director Tim Mannix and his family enjoying a long history with the Villagers. 2026 is no exception, with the likes of Taylor Moananu (prop), Kitiona Talaepa (lock) and Kingston Hill (flanker) all headed to Udy Street alongside pearls William Davis-Lenz and Heath Tuifao. Fullback Davis-Lenz is capable of covering both wings and possibly first-five. He scored seven tries in blue and white last year and engineered several others with his panoramic vision and incisive running. If he transfers that form to his maiden club rugby season, he will have many a camera lens on him too. Prop Heath Tuifao is conspicuous in his “Pink Batts” headgear. He cuts an uncanny resemblance to his older brother, Wellington Lions squad member Connor Tuifao, who swapped from the front row to the back row. Heath is capable of the same, and was the Player of the Tournament for his Silverstream team at last October’s Wellington Condor Sevens tournament at Naenae College.

Heath Tuifao (rear, pink headgear) and his older brother Connor (front, pink headgear) track Logan Henry’s pass in last weekend’s pre-season match for Petone against Paremata-Plimmerton. Photo: Tane Nathan.

In a Scots College outfit that could barely scrummage, Brandon Lo was a lone warrior doing his best Ardie Savea impersonation. He carried the Presbyterians and hit the ground running at the National Club Sevens for HOBM in tip-top shape.

Riley Browne also joins Hutt Old Boys Marist this year and is the Wellington Academy alongside Rupeni Raviyawa (noted above). Jubilee Cup Champions HOBM have a good group of other school leavers with many in the mix for Premier rugby.

Riley Browne scores for St Pat’s Silverstream against Wellington College last year. Photo: Andy McArthur.

Navrin Campbell was the Swiss Army Knife of Wellington College. Shifted across the backline, he was a reliable solution everywhere he played. Campbell joins MSP.

His Wellington College teammate and halfback Bentley Faulkner also joins MSP and will look to continue his good form in the First XV competition last year. Fraser Lindsay moves from the Wellington College left wing to across the road from his former teammates to join Pōneke, whilst hooker Noah Aliva joins Old Boys University from the same school.

Ryder Sao spent three years in the Tawa College First XV and was their No. 8 and a leading player last year in an unbeaten Beard Trophy run, making the Hurricanes U18s squad. He makes the switch over to the Tawa club this season.

Kita Kanavatoa was in the Hurricanes U18s camp last year out of Otaki College, and joins Pōneke.

Lochie Jackson played on the wing for the St Pat’s Silverstream First XV last year and this year he joins the Avalon Wolves. He is the son of Avalon centurion Owen Jackson and was an Avalon junior.

Petone have Hamilton Boys’ High School First XV lock Aidan Saxon joining their ranks this year, while OBU have Zane Annabell out of Cullinane College.

Amongst school leavers joining Paremata-Plimmerton this year are wing Finn Leighton (Wellington College) midfielder Teddy Cooling (St Pat’s Silverstream) and hooker Tait Judd (HIBS).

MSP have a number of school leavers in addition to Ioane Aukisitino, Navrin Campbell and Bentley Faulkner (noted above). Some other players include Dominic Mettrick, (St Pat’s Town), inside back Dylan Johanson-Su’a (Rongotai College), prop Connor Maxwell (St Pat’s Town), No. 8 Wade Kafatolu (St Pat’s Town) and lock/flanker Angus Houghton out of Sacred Heart College in Auckland.

MSP also have two players from England, first/second five Nate James out of Exeter School and the Exeter Chiefs Rugby U18 Academy and lock William Abercrombie coming from Prior Park College and the Bath Rugby U17 Academy.

Ories have Scots College first-five Sam Advent Va’a and Rongotai College first-five Jarell Sagote-Mears and Rongotai’s Jordan Samuelu and TJ Robinson who is a hooker.

The Upper Hutt Rams have several school players from local First and Second XVs in the mix in their Colts team and perhaps to play Premiers this year. St Pat’s Silverstream left wing Ashton Steere is one to watch, while lock Zacc Maguren also played in the winning team in last year’s final. Other new Rams players include Jordan Thurston, Julian Paterson, Ryleigh Whiteman, Callum Whiteman, Teimana Edwards and Mason Henry.

Last year’s Wellington College captain and centre Charisma Faitala is another name to watch for the future and has joined HOBM – but he is not playing this year as he is having shoulder surgery.

Malachai Osman was Tawa College’s captain and head boy last year, but he has transferred to Hawke’s Bay and the Napier Tech club and was recently in the Hawke’s Bay Academy team.

Archie Sims has headed to Auckland where his older brother George Sims is based and has joined the Pakuranga club and the Auckland Academy. Sims’ Wellington College teammate and wing Shea Bosher has gone to Australia.

• All clubs were contacted for input for this article.
• Look out for the annual Wellington club rugby Gains and Losses article middle of next week. 

The Wellington Premier, Premier 2 competitions get underway on Saturday 4 April, all other grades the following week