The most capped Premier players in Wellington club rugby

• By Club Rugby Enthusiasts

Following the recent story out of Southland club rugby that 48-year-old Jason Rutledge had played his 300^th Premier club rugby fixture for his Woodlands club, we investigated who might be the most capped players of all time in the Wellington Premier (formally Senior 1) competitions.

Closer to the Swindale Shield and Jubilee and Hardham VC Memorial Cup competitions, Brad Carr has just ended the Manawatu season sitting on 402 first team appearances for Feilding Yellows. He is also a coach at his club and last Saturday played for his Feilding’s Second XV side in a lower grade Manawatu club rugby final win.

Have these numbers been reached in Wellington? Not in the top grade.

Not every club keeps meticulous records, so compiling an accurate list with statistics of the players with the most Premier caps for their clubs is a work-on.

To give this a go, below is a run-through of each club, while also looking at some of the players to have played in lower grades or across multiple teams who have racked up big appearance numbers.

First, plenty of players had long careers in past eras, even going back decades. But they played fewer matches per season then so unless we have missed a trooper from yesteryear (let’s hear about him) we can be fairly confident that they wouldn’t have played as many games as the names canvassed below.

Starting with Pōneke who notably only count ‘starting caps, their top three are:

Grant Griffith 286 games (career spanned1969-86), Misapauluni Moanau (1997-17) 260 (1997-17) and Paul Hakaraia 255 (1979-93).

Griffith joined Pōneke in the late 1960s straight out of Rongotai College. He became captain of his side and won the Jubilee Cup in 1975. He also played for the Wellington representative team and and was in the side that won the NPC for the first time in 1978.  After hanging up his boots and coached the Poneke Premiers for several seasons until well into the 1990s. Following that he moved into administration and was Poneke FC President for five years.

Misapauluni Moananu’s brothers, Fa’atoto and the late Misiluni, played 232 and 205 matches respectively for Pōneke, so the three brothers played 697 matches between them (and no doubt more off the bench not recorded).

Misiluni also played seven matches for the Wellington Axemen in 2015. He sadly passed away at the end of that year with illness.

Moving across to Oriental-Rongotai and the official Ories most capped players are Whetu Henry with 231 appearances and Paulo Aukuso with 216. Aukuso played his most recent match in 2022 but is still a regular in their Premier 2 team so will be approaching the 300 mark overall.

Fa’avae Tumai’i played many seasons for Ories, as well as for Johnsonville and the Wellington Axemen so combined his tally in the Premier grade alone is knocking on 300.

Marist St Pat’s have had a number of centurions, and their most capped Premier player is Fa’atonu Fili with 241. He also played 17 matches for Ories in one season he played for them on 2013 so his total tally is 258.

MSP have also had several players in the lower grade teams to have played many games, such as Pena Fretton who played his 250^th match for the MSP Internationals in 2024.

Staying in the eastern suburbs and with non-Premier teams, Jason Judd played his 500^th match in Wellington Axemen colours and in his 50^th consecutive season playing rugby in 2021:

Legends of Club Rugby: Jason Judd (Wellington Axemen)

The Axemen’s most capped Premier player is unconfirmed but it will be someone such as Graham Williams who played every season between 1964-78 when he retired. He is also the Wellington representative team’s most capped player with 174 matches.

Old Boys University’s most capped Premier player is Jonathan Fuimaono, who finished his Wellington club rugby career with 185 Premier caps. The player known as Fui retired and played for an extra season or two for Rahui in Horowhenua-Kapiti’s competition, so he surpassed 200 caps in total across both competitions.

With several thriving social teams, OBU have had a number of player to have played many matches. One leading example is Ed ‘Major’ Griffiths, current club Chairman and Righteous Pink Ginners player. He has played upwards of 500 games for OBU, including his caps for Reserve Grade teams, Premier 2s, Senior 2s and this year a game for the Premiers.

For his current team specifically (Righteous Brothers and now Righteous Pink Ginners), Griffiths has played over 350 games, and they plan to acknowledge this milestone at their last game of the regular season against the Johnsonville Cripples.

The most capped player in the Mixed Veges is Roy Radish Hoerara with 365 up to 2021. He also played played over 200 games of Premier rugby for at least a couple of clubs (such as Norths and Wellington) and approximately 600+ games of Senior Rugby in total.

The Veges’ most capped current player that is Phil ‘Tarragon’ Tanuvasa, with 345 rugby harvests and counting.

Heading north to Johnsonville, the most capped Premier /top team player is likely Gary Cutting who played well over 200 matches for the Hawks.

Colin Davidson (CD) is likely the most capped played across the club with an estimated 500 appearances in other teams, similar to OBU’s Griffiths above. Starting as a teenager, he played 34 consecutive seasons for Johnsonville.

Tawa’s most capped Premier player is still playing. After their most recent match, Tawa fullback Randall Bishop is sitting on 209 Premier caps in a career that started in 2011 and he didn’t miss a game between 2011-15. He has also played two seasons for Toa in the Horowhenua-Kapiti competition so his total for all teams will be nearing 250.

Northern United’s most capped player could be close to being Wellington’s most capped if you take the 100 + games he played for Pōneke before joining Norths. That is Peato ‘Cash’ Lafaele who played 210 Premier matches for Norths between 2001-17, so well over 300 in total. In 2006 Lafaele was vice captain and the top points scorer in Premier Rugby with 192 as Norths won the ‘double’ for the first time. Lafaele has continued playing Premier 2, was Premier Assistant Coach and is a current Junior coach at Norths.

Staying with Norths, the club’s most capped player is Dawn Patelesio who played 305 games between 1990-2016. She started at aged 13 as a year 9 student at Bishop Viard College and also took a few seasons off during her time so it wasn’t a continuous 26 seasons. The Player of the Women’s Final is awarded the Daen Patelesio Medal, while she is the current Norths Women’s assistant coach.

Dawn Patelesio reflects on 300-game career

For Paremata-Plimmerton, Shane Hedges is the club’s most capped ‘first team’ player with 235, starting in 2008. In Premier matches, it is Tane McMillan-Parata with 139 and counting since 2014.

Moving across the Hutt Valley and current player and Chairman Jamie Pita has played some 320 games for the Stokes Valley club including over 270 for the top team in a 20-season career. He also played two seasons for Rimutaka so will be on approximately 350 games combined.

Other Stokes Valley players to surpass 200 game include Paul Nixon, Matt Dorward, Chad Pikari and Leon Riddler.

Avalon’s most capped player would likely be former lock Jason Goble.

He played his 250^th Premier game in round one in 2006 and retired at the end of 2007 having played 275 matches for Avalon.

Upper Hutt’s most capped Premier player is/was flanker Nathan Russell with over 200 games (exact number not confirmed). In the current team, Josh Hunt is sitting on 175 Premier caps for Upper Hutt/Upper Hutt Rams. Hunt also played 42 matches for Norths Premiers, so that is 217 all up in the Premier grade. He has played many more in Premier 2 too.

The most capped player currently playing at the Rams, including lower grade teams, is Ainsley Mei who has played every season since 1997 and somewhere between 450-500 matches in total.

Teru Time is Wainuiomata’s most capped Premier player, having just played his 228^th Premier match. The club’s Chairman made his debut in Round 5 in 2011 against Tawa.

Hutt Old Boys Marist can count Polonga Pedro as its most capped Premier player. The lock/blindside flanker made his Premier debut in 2001 and ran out for his 200^th match in April 2013. He finished his career with 244 Premier caps for the Eagles. Halfback Nick Risdon is second on 218, and prop Simon Malaeulu and flanker Martin Wallis are also over 200. Doug Power played over 200 games for Hutt Old Boys and HOBM combined.

Polonga Pedro running out to play his 200^th Premier game in April 2013.

Rod Plimmer played on the wing for Hutt Old Boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s before heading to Australia. He returned and was a regular member of the Eastbourne U85kgs for over 15 seasons, so his career spanned about 30 years and many games.

Last of the current clubs, Petone. Like a lot of older, established clubs, Petone has had a number of players to have played over 100 games, going back many decades and they have a board honouring these players in their clubhouse.

But as was pointed out, they played fewer matches per season back then, usually 14-16 a season right up to when the Jubilee Cup became a full seven-week round-robin with semi-finals and finals in the early 1990s.

Thus the most capped Petone players are highly likely to be those from the modern era. The club had four players who each played over 200 matches whose careers overlapped, these were Chris Molenaar, Eugene Smith, Thomas Tupiavao and Cam Incledon. Of the four, it is believed (but not certain) that Molenaar played the most and hit the 240s in his total number of Premier appearances.

Double centurions Eugene Smith (Petone) and Misipauluni Moananu (Pōneke) lead their teams out on the occasion of Pōneke’s 125^th anniversary weekend in 2008.

Brian Cederwall played ‘over’ 300 matches combined straight out of Rongotai College between 1971 and 1986 and then again briefly in 1992 for Athletic and Western Suburbs. During his club rugby career he scored over 1,500 points.

Cederwall is in the pantheon of Wellington sports people, having also played 103 representative rugby matches for Wellington and 52 first-class cricket games for the province.

If anyone reading this can provide further details of players above or details of players to have played many matches not included please get in touch and we can add in for the records.