New names galore in 2026 Lions squad

• By Club Rugby contributors

Wellington Lions supporters will be banking on an outside player injection being the winning formula in this year’s National Provincial Championship.

The squad is in the graphic here:

The five-time NPC champions will be hoping that the arrival of several new players will offset the loss of a number of well-known faces who are mostly unavailable because of the All Blacks and because of injury.

Wellington’s current All Blacks include Ardie Savea, Peter Lakai, Billy Proctor, Ruben Love, Kyle Preston, Xavier Numia and Asafo Aumua.

It is understood that the All Blacks will be taking 44 players to South Africa, with several more on standby, so that is three full NPC teams of players out of 14 teams unavailable for much of the competition. Club Rugby has been told that Du Plessis Kirifi and perhaps one more player from Wellington (possibly Siale Lauaki) will be on the plane for the Greatest Rivalry tour after it is named next Monday.

All Blacks haven’t been playing in the NPC for a number of seasons, except when released here and there, but nevertheless that is potentially nine players out and a hole that needs filling.

Others such as Jackson Garden-Bachop, Kapu Broughton-Winterburn and Johnny Falloon* (all knees) and Riley Higgins (surgery, then off overseas) are out for the season, whilst yet others such as Stanley Solomon and possibly Brad Shields (niggles) will be out for up to a few weeks. Although Falloon isn’t listed above as an injured player so reports of his meniscus injury could be overblown.

So that leaves us with the squad that has been announced today, and there are several players that fans will want to know more about.

Three ‘new’ players in the inside backs divisions are known to club rugby fans.

Marist St Pat’s’ Cameron Burgess is a former St Pat’s Town (class of 2021) and Wellington age-grade player and spent a few seasons living and playing in Otago. He has been named as an outside back but can fill positions closer to the action.

Jordan Soli is the Oriental-Rongotai fullback, who has put in a number of sharp performances this year and is Wellington club rugby’s top points scorer with 177 points including 11 tries.

Piri Paraone is a former Wellington College and Petone first-five who played some 70 Premier club matches in Wellington 2015-20. The former age-grade NZ touch representative player played in several Wellington rep teams from the U19s to the Centurions. His last rep season was in in 2020 when he was playing well for that latter team before going to Japan. He returned to New Zealand and played for Clifton in Taranaki in 2024 and has been playing in Helensville in North Harbour this season and recently played his 50th game for them.

Upper Hutt Rams captain Murphy Taramai is a popular homegrown pick. He returned to Upper Hutt and to Wellington club rugby form Japan with this growing family at the start of this season. The loose forward gives it his all every match.

Petone lock Sam Thomson is a member of the WRFU Academy and was recently training with the New Zealand U20s as injury cover ahead of their Junior World Cup in Georgia. He is originally out of Paraparaumu College but spent his final year at school at St Pat’s Silverstream in 2024.

Other local players from Wellington club rugby include  flanker Sione Halalilo and hooker Penieli Poasa (Ories, both returning), halfback Logan Henry (Petone) and tighthead prop Alex Hewitt (Upper Hutt Rams)  –  who has been with the New Zealand U20s – and Rupeni Raviyawa (HOBM).

Raviyawa is first year out of Feilding High School and has been strong form all year for the Eagles and has regularly been picking up best and fairest points and scoring tries.

Sekope Lopeti-Moli is a prop and hooker who joins the Lions via the Tongan national squad and he has recently been involved in the Nations Cup. The 29-year-old brings plenty of NPC experience from over the past several years having played for Counties Manukau and Waikato.

Divad Palu was born in Wellington but educated in Melbourne and was in the Australian U20s in 2024 and played two Super Rugby matches for the Force in 2025. He is a centre. The surname confirms that he is a nephew of well-known Wellington club players Tomasi and David Palu.

Jackson Ropata is also a midfielder out of Australia and played for the Waratahs in 2025. The player they call ‘Jet’ has been playing Shute Shield rugby for Warringah this year.

Samuela Tawake is a prop coming to Wellington from the Fijian Drua. The 29-year-old 120kg power unit has represented Fiji and has had brief previous stints in the NPC with Canterbury and Manawatu.

Riley Williams is out of the Auckland 1A First XV system, the ex-Auckland Grammar halfback/first-five is a former New Zealand U20s player and has most recently been in the All Blacks Sevens squad.

The Lions have gone Stateside for propping power, with Jake Turnbull a multi-year veteran playing in Major League Rugby in the USA. He has most recently been playing for the Chicago Hounds. Originally from Australia, Turnbull is a specialist loosehead prop.

Japanese pair Kenchichi Yanigawa (a lock/loose forward) and Reo Matsushita (an outside back) joint the Lions ranks as part of that ongoing arrangement.

Brad Shields, Matt Proctor, Julian Savea, James O’Reilly, Caleb Delany, Losi Filipo, Callum Harkin, Siale Lauaki and Hugo Plummer and Super Rugby players Dominic Ropeti, Solomon and Matolu Petaia are the team’s senior players.

Wellington’s 2026 NPC campaign gets underway next Sunday when they host the Hawke’s Bay Magpies at Wellington Stadium.

A Wellington Lions XV plays Taranaki away in their second NPC warm-up fixture this coming Friday.