Around the World with club rugby Volume 1

Wellington club rugby has a rich and diverse history of players coming from overseas for short or longer stints and leaving their marks on their host clubs and the competition.

In part one below we have put together a list of some of these players right up to the present day who have played their club rugby in Wellington, many of whom have gone on to bigger things back home.

Note that this article does not include Pacific Island or Fiji players. There have been many of these players right up to the current season, so highlighting these players can be a subsequent article that is being worked on.

+++++

Starting with the current season, Marist St Pat’s have a strong European connection with many of them (Fabio Minelli, Leo Balouzat, Eliott Vidal, Gage Curry, Oliver Ison) having already made their Swindale Shield debuts. Players include Ison and Nate James (England), Minelli (Italy), Vidal and Balouzat (France), Gage (USA) and Sacha Lucas (Belgium).

The scarlets have had several players down the years to come and play a number of games for the Premiers, a couple of recent examples being Manu Quintane, a French fullback who played a season with 2015 and very nearly won the Jubilee Cup, MSP missing out to Old Boys University 27-30 in that year’s final.

Shane Thompstone from Ireland is another modern example. He has played a number of Premier games since his first in mid-2019 and he has settled in New Zealand.

Shane Thompstone meets the tryline for MSP against Norths in 2024. 

Going back over the past 20 years or so, an early favourite player of this website was James Buckland who arrived at Tawa from England for a short stint in 20023 and 2004. The hooker’s bustling style of play suited the physicality of the Wellington club competition and he regularly picked up best and fairest points. Prior to that, Tawa also had English locks Chris Burgess and Chris ‘Dumper’ Denhert with them for stints, as well as prop Des Boomfield.

Murray Douglas from Scotland played at either lock, flanker for the Petone Premiers in 2012 before heading over to Melbourne and contining his rugby journey.

He was then signed by the Hurricanes in 2018 and also linked up again with Petone and played a handful more matches. He moved back to Australia and played 23 matches for the Brumbies over two seasons and has been playing in Japan since 2020.

In the late 1990s young Argentinean prop named Omar Hasan played a season at Petone and went on to play over 50 Tests for the Pumas along with becoming quite a renowned opera singer.

Anthony ‘Tony’ Clement played for Pōneke in the 1980s. He went on to play for Wales from 1987 and for the British and Irish Lions. Poneke Life Member John Davies was instrumental in bringing him out to NZ.

Another prominent player of the 1980s in Wellington club rugby was Jamie Salmon. He was born in Hong Kong and landed in Wellington in 1977 as a teenager and won the Jubilee Cup with the the Athletic club, then winning the Swindale Shield in 1978.

The centre went on to play 64 matches for Wellington and played for the All Blacks in 1981. He moved to England in 1983 and made 12 appearances for them 1985-87.

See below where Salmon was centre for Wellington when they won the Ranfurly Shield off Waikato in 1981:

There has been a welcome Irish flavour to Wellington club rugby, right up to modern times.

Donal McNamara or ‘Scarrif’ amongst the Irish crowd was a regular Ories player at loosehead prop from 2006-12. McNamara played for Manawatu in the 2010 ITM Cup and celebrated his 100th Premier game for Ories in May 2011 and was captain of the side that lifted their inaugural Jubilee Cup title later that season.

Henk du Toit came over from South Africa and made 17 starts at lock for Oriental-Rongotai including playing in the 2011 final. He subsequently played several seasons for Ories social teams as a lock and No. 8.

Still with Ories, they had England’s Murray Jones in 1982 as a goal-kicking first-five who helped the club get back into the top grade. He was replaced by Tony O’Malley who was a goal kicking fullback. Tony was coming back in 1984 but broke his leg so John Gallagher was a late replacement, and the rest is history with him. In a twist, O’Malley did come back, and he bought a house with Gallagher and also briefly played for Wellington.

Johnsonville have had Irish friends in their team over the past few years, halfback Mark Sutton and first-five/fullback Niall Delahunt. The pair joined the Hawks in 2020 and Sutton is now in Australia Delahunt is still at Helston Park and a current Premier squad member.

Also currently with Johnsonville are English pair, outside back Finlay Sharp and No. 8 Regan Herbert, who remain well known and integral members of their Premiers. Up until mid-last year they had the services of first-five Ken Kurihara who added plenty before heading home to Japan.

Old Boys University have had a few prominent players in recent years.

Argentinian lock Agustin Escalona became a Billy Goats centurion in 2019, but wasn’t supposed to stay in New Zealand upon his first visit with his dad, former Argentine diplomat Fernando Escalona, in 2013. However, swift employment and a love of rugby led to a permanent relocation. He won three Jubilee Cups in 2015, 2017, and 2018. He briefly played for Easts in Sydney before retiring. He works as a mechanical engineer in Sydney. Originally from Buenos Aires, he even played for the Wellington Māori.

OBU Teammate Alex ‘Dutchie’ Barendregt from the Hague was a Netherlands international prop before arriving in the capital in 2015. In his first year with Old Boys University he helped the students win the Jubilee Cup for the first time since 1966. In 2017 OBU achieved the Swindale/Jubilee Cup double. In 2018 Barendregt was seriously injured but recovered in time for the Jubilee Cup final, earning the Jim Brown Memorial Medal for his sturdy display in a 37-31 win against Norths. His last scrum penalty to end the game was legendary. He represented the Wellington Lions and last played for OBU in 2019. He works in Wellington.

Barendregt with the Jim Brown Plate after the 2018 final.

António Prim (Wellington Axemen) was introduced to rugby by his uncle. Prim (189 cm, 122 kg) was flown to the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand (IRANZ) for a week in December 2019 as a 16th birthday present. He went on to play 18 Tests (13 wins) for Portugal, including the 2023 Rugby World Cup. In 2024 he played a memorable season for Wellington, helping the Axemen snap a 43-game losing streak and dominate most rival scrums.

Prior to those three above, USA Eagles players Eric Fry and Taylor Mokate spent a season at OBU in 2012. Fry had appeared at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and made 13 starts at tighthead prop of the Billygoats before signing to play with the Manawatu Turbos for that year’s NPC. He later played for London Scottish and Newcastle falcons and in Pro D2 in France. The California native played 48 internationals for the USA between 2011-19.

In women’s rugby, a popular recent player – on and off the field – was Canadian international player and coach Lesley McKenzie.

She played a season for the Wainuiomata Women’s team in 2014 and also worked for the WRFU where she was the Schoolgirls Co-ordinator and was a manager of a couple of representative teams such as the Women’s 7s, before moving to Whanganui to continue her career in 2015.

Mara Moberg played a season for Pōneke Women in 2006, playing alongside future Black Fern Amy Berthaut (nee Farr), and future Manu Sina superstars Brenda, Helen, and Tiggy Collins. She returned to the Netherlands, ended up captaining the Dutch Women’s 7 rugby team and is now a professional rugby speaker, performance coach, and sport analyst.

The Wellington Lions have brought several overseas Lions to the capital, often front rowers, such as Australian Andrew Heath, South African Morné van der Merwe, Canadian Kevin Yates  and more recently last season Japanese players, Hibiki Yamada and Kenshi Yamamoto.