Wellington Lions v Waikato semi-final stats – ClubRugby.nz

The Wellington Lions beat Waikato 29-24 in Saturday’s NPC semi-final and will host Bay of Plenty in the final.

Some facts, figures and statistics from the semi-final are below, by: Peter Marriott.

Semi-final v Waikato: win 29–24

Wellington Lions and Waikato have met 48 times at the NPC. Wellington have won 28 times and Waikato 20 times. There were no ones.

Wellington and Waikato did not meet in the regular season.

Since the introduction of the finals format in 1992, the Lions have appeared in 19 semi-final matches, winning 14 of them and losing five. They have hosted the semi-finals 12 times, winning nine of them and losing three. Those nine wins were over Waikato (28–16 in 2004), Southland (28–19 in 2008), Southland again (34–21 in 2009), County Manukau (41–10 in 2013) , Otago (34–14 in 2015). ), Northland (49-21 in 2017: this match was played while Wellington were in the Championship division), Canterbury (30-19 in 2019), Auckland (54-19 in 2022) and now Waikato again (29- 24) in 2024.

Wellington and Waikato have actually met in four semi-final matches: apart from the two mentioned above, they first met in Hamilton in 1999, when Wellington won 38-17. They also met in Hamilton in 2003 and this time Wellington again won 30–29. So, the score is 4-0 in Wellington’s favor.

For reference, Wellington’s five semi-final losses came to Canterbury (2010), Auckland (2012 and 2018), North Harbor (2016) and Hawke’s Bay (2023).

The Lions have won their last four matches against Waikato, matching their winning streak achieved first between 1984 and 1988 and then between 2003 and 2005.

It was also the Lions’ fourth win in a row over Waikato at home. Waikato last beat Wellington 28-24 in Wellington in 2016.

Wellington have won all seven matches played at home in 2024. This matches their record of seven matches in a row in 2008 (they won their first seven matches before losing the final to Canterbury) and all seven matches played in 2017, including the final (59-45) against Bay of Plenty which allowed the hosts to move from the Championship division back to the Premier League division in 2018.

The Lions have scored four or more tries ten times in 12 matches played this season. This figure was surpassed only 12 times when they scored four or more tries in 2017, a season in which they scored a total of 74 tries, an NPC record that still stands.

For the record, Wellington attempted four times a total of 94 times, with 75 wins, 18 losses and one draw.

They scored five or more tries in a match on 143 occasions, with 133 wins, nine losses and one draw. In other words, Wellington have scored four or more tries in a match 237 times (out of 512 matches), with a record of 208 wins (87.8%), 27 losses and two draws.

The Lions won their 10th game of the season. They have won this amount for the third year in a row:

in 2022 it was 11 wins from 13 matches, and last year they won 10 of 12 matches. Their record for most NPC wins in a season is 11, achieved on three separate occasions to date: 2008, 2017 and 2022.

The Lions scored 53 tries in 2024, the eighth season in which they have reached a half-century in 49 years of NPC rugby.

Wellington missed their first try with a seven-point penalty in the NPC match. These unconverted tries were introduced in 2017 and it took Wellington 97 matches before being penalized. Riley Higgins is a Lions player who holds a questionable first-time foul record.

On the other hand, the Lions were awarded a penalty against Hawke’s Bay during their quarter-final match in Wellington in 2022.

The home team won that match by seven points (28-21), although a penalty was awarded early in the first half.

Wellington’s only penalty in the match was their 100th penalty against Waikato. Only Canterbury, with 106 penalties, have scored more goals than Wellington.

Wellington made five changes to their starting XV against Waikato from the one that played the quarter-final match against County Manukau. There were three changes in defenders and two in forwards.

Kyle Preston scored two tries in a match for the first time. Remarkably, he became the 100th Lions player to score two or more tries in an NPC match. Stu Wilson was the first to do so: against Canterbury in Wellington in August 1976. This was Wellington’s fifth NPC match.

Preston now have 10 tries in 23 matches.

It was Siale Lauaki’s third try in his 25th match.

Penieli scored his third try in his 19th match.

All three players had previously failed to score for Waikato.

Callum Harkin, replacing the injured Jackson Garden-Bachop: (99 appearances for Wellington) added nine points with the boot.

He now has 37 points in nine games for Wellington.

Riley Higgins received a yellow card in the 36th minute. He is the third Lions player in 2024 to earn the honor.

Tom Maiava, who was on the bench as a substitute, was not used during the match.

Waikato’s two top scorers, Oli Mathis and Mason Tupaea, scored their first goals against Wellington.

Surprisingly, it was only Aaron Cruden’s third match against Wellington since he made his NPC debut for Manawatu in 2008. He scored 16 points for Manawatu in 2011, which included two conversions, three penalties and one goal. The drop goal is actually the last that any team scored against Wellington. Cruden did not miss any of his three Waikato goal attempts (two conversions and a penalty), maintaining his streak of 21 successful goal kicks from opposition players in his last four matches against Wellington.

Quintoni Ngatai, who was on the Waikato bench, did not take the field.

Angus Mabey controlled his sixth match against the Lions. This was his second match of the season: he was also in charge of their match against Bay of Plenty in Round 7, which went to Golden Point.

Warwick Lamert and Paul Williams were assistant referees and Richard Kelly was TMO.

Wellington will face Bay of Plenty in the final in Wellington on Saturday 26.

Wellington’s overall NPC record: played 512 matches, won 326 (63.7%), lost 174 and drew 12.

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