NPC Number Crunching: Wellington Lions  v Hawke’s Bay

The Stat Attack by compiled by Peter Marriot continues for this year’s 50^th National Provincial Championship competition. The first one from the match against Hawke’s Bay is below.

Round 1 v Hawke’s Bay: Lost 33-52

The Wellington Lions began the 51st season of NPC rugby (renamed Hilux NPC this year) with a loss: the 16th time they have started with an L against their score. However, on the plus side they have won 34 times “first up” and drawn once.

The Lions and Hawke’s Bay have played each other five times in a season’s opening round and the Lions are ahead with three wins to the Bay’s two.

Hawke’s Bay’s 52 points is their highest score against the Lions beating the 45 points they scored in their 45-19 win at Napier in last year’s match.

Hawke’s Bay’s 52 points are the most conceded by the Lions in any match since losing 28-53 against Waikato at Hamilton in 2020.

The Lions have now conceded 50 or more points in a match on 12 occasions.

Wellington and Hawke’s Bay have met 34 times in the NPC. Wellington has won 19 times to the Bay’s 13. There have been two draws.

The record between the two sides when they have played in Wellington sees the home side ahead with 12 wins to the visitor’s five, with one match drawn.

The eight tries scored by Hawke’s Bay is a new record for them against Wellington bettering the six they scored at Napier in 2011 and the six in last year’s match.

Wellington had not conceded eight tries in any match since playing against Manawatu at Palmerston North in 2016.

Having lost their final two matches last season the Lions have now lost three in a row. The previous time this happened was in 2021 when they actually lost four matches in succession.

Ten players made their debut for Wellington in this match. The six who started were Cameron Burgess, Reo Matsushita, Divad Palu, Jackson Ropata, Samuela Tawake and Jake Turnbull. The four who came off the bench were Geordie Bean, Alex Hewitt (the son of the late former Lions player and captain Norm), Riley Williams and Kenkichi Yanagawa. Tawake and Williams had previously played for other NPC sides.

OBU captain Geordie gets his Beans – one of 10 players on debut on Sunday.

Sione Halalilo was also listed on the reserves bench, but did not get onto the field.

The Lions scored five tries, three of which were by the debutants Burgess, Matsushita and Palu.

Logan Henry scored his first try in his third match: his first two matches were played back in 2023.

Henry goes over.

Du’Plessis Kirifi scored his 17th try in 70 appearances. It was his first try against Hawke’s Bay.

Callum Harkin’s eight points were his first against Hawke’s Bay. In 20 appearances he has scored 68 points for the Lions.

Caleb Delany captained the side for the first time. He was the first lock to lead Wellington since James Blackwell did against Tasman at Nelson in 2022. This was Delany’s 58th match.

New captain Caleb Delany on the charge.

Murphy Taramai played his second match for Wellington. His first was against Taranaki at Wellington on 5 October 2014!

Five of Hawke’s Bay’s players had not previously scored a try against the Lions. They were Folau Fakatava (his 16th try in all matches), Hunter Morrison, Will Cole, Clement Castets and Kade Manuel.

Neria Fomai scored his second try against the Lions. The first was at Napier in 2020.

Fomai was issued with a yellow card in the 33rd minute of the match.

Jonah Lowe’s try was his fourth against the Lions. His previous three were scored at Wellington in 2021 and 2023 and at Napier last year.

Tyrone Thompson now has three against the Lions having scored a “pair” in the match at Wellington in 2024. Ironically Thompson had previously played for the Wellington Lions in 2020 and 2021 and during their match against Hawke’s Bay at Wellington in 2021 he also scored a double.

Harry Godfrey kicked 12 points which when added to his previous total of 27 gives him a grand total of 39 points against the Lions.

The Wellington side acknowledged “Old Timers’ Day” by placing their caps on the ground in front of the attending former players, prior to the start of the match.

Fraser Hannon was in charge of his third match which involved the Lions. He had also controlled the match between the same two sides at Napier last year.

The Wellington Lions have played 524 NPC matches for 330 wins (63.0%), 182 losses and 12 draws.

The Hawke’s Bay Magpies have played 345 NPC matches for 152 wins (44.1%), 181 losses and 12 draws.