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Du’Plessis Kirifi reveals the secret behind Wellington Lions’ success

Du'Plessis Kirifi of Wellington leads the team out for the round one Bunnings Warehouse NPC match between Auckland and Wellington at Eden Park, on August 09, 2024, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

As the Wellington Lions continue to hunt for their second NPC title in three years, captain Du’Plessis Kirifi has revealed the secret behind the team’s success. Wellington finished first at the end of the regular season, and they’re now preparing to host Waikato in the semi-finals.

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With Ranfurly Shield holders Tarnaki and third-place Tasman both bowing out of the competition in shock quarter-final upsets, Wellington are now the only side left standing that finished in the top three on the ladder.

Bay of Plenty finished fourth with a 7-3 record, and they’re now preparing to host sixth-seed Canterbury at the Tauranga Domain on Saturday afternoon. The only semi-finalist is Waikato, who snuck into the playoffs with a record of five wins from 10 matches.

Results in the NPC have been unpredictable this season, and that’s been part of the competition’s charm as commentator Grant Nisbett recently suggested. But, the Lions have firmed as the favourites to take out the title with only a quartet remaining.

“We worked really hard to change things culturally a few years ago,” Kirifi said on SENZ’s The Run Home with Kirst & Beav.

“We had Leo Crowley, well going back a little bit to (Chris Gibbes) and (Tamaiti Ellison) more recently, and I guess that flow on effect, the positive impact that has a couple of years ago on the boys that are young and coming through, and now those boys that were young and coming through (are) incumbents in our team and playing regularly.

“You hope to make positive changes and you hope that those changes, like I said, have a flow-on effect and affect the team the following year and the year after that by setting good examples and stuff like that.

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“We’re really proud of our environment. Everyone, even if they’re not playing or injured, we love coming to work and I think that helps and translates out onto a well-run, well-oiled team on the field.”

Wellington booked their place in the final four with a 29-14 win over Counties Manukau in the nation’s capital last Friday. All Blacks XV squad member Riley Higgins scored the opener, and captain Kirifi was the next man to cross for a five-pointer as the Lions built up a lead.

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Counties clawed their way back into the contest but the Lions always appeared to be a step ahead. With the hosts ahead by 10 points, Kyle Preston raced away to seal the match with a try in the 73rd minute.

That result avenged Wellington’s staggering loss to the same foe only two weeks earlier, with Counties taking out that regular season fixture 51-12. Counties led 48-nil at one stage before the Lions got themselves on the scoreboard with two late tries.

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“They genuinely gave us a hiding when we went up there. Although we played poorly, I won’t take anything away from them, they played some amazing rugby that night,” Kirifi reflected.

“We knew that when they were coming down, they’d be running off that energy and that emotion. We had to be where we needed to be to beat them.

“We were lucky to have a few boys come back but every game presents different challenges and I think that one had a bit of an emotional flavour to it. Pride was a little bit hurt from that previous game so we definitely had a point to prove.

“We were lucky to be at home in front of our family and friends so that helped as well.

“Counties did extremely well to make the finals and we’re aware of the team that they can be on their night. We put things in place to stop them and I feel like we did a good job of that for the most part and other parts we had a little bit of room to improve.

Match Summary

0
Penalty Goals
0
5
Tries
2
2
Conversions
2
0
Drop Goals
0
93
Carries
181
7
Line Breaks
5
17
Turnovers Lost
18
8
Turnovers Won
9

“Hopefully we do that this week.

“We work extremely hard to not only qualify but qualify in a good position,” he had said earlier.

“To be fortunate enough to have a home game in the semi-finals is massive so the importance of doing that is not lost on us.

“But, you know, it’s not even half the job so still got a big old game ahead of us.”

Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)

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Flankly 1 hour ago
Four talking points after a 'bonkers' England loss to Australia

On the face of it the England rush defence seemed to be worse this week than last. I thought the line speed last week was very effective against NZ, and that the NZ tries had to be very well worked to get around or through. But in fact the apparent deterioration of the England defence may have been more about Schmidt learning from the NZ game. Australia were quick about getting the ball outside of the midfield defenders, and England struggled to cover it effectively. Suaailii was a key element of this. The Boks are going to test this next week, and if England don't address it we should see some Bok tries out wide.


The England attack was as expected, ie fairly ineffective, per last week. Smith is the exception. His magic was behind almost everything England did on attack. While it's great for England to have a player like this, the question is what will happen when an opponent targets him to minimize his impact. Can England win a game with their Plan B? We saw what happened in the 2019 RWC final when the Boks shut down George Ford.


More of a surprise was the England forward pack. This ought to be the area in which Bothwick excels. It is a traditional England strength, and Borthwick was a forward himself. And there is a lot of experience in that pack. So I thought Australia might be overwhelmed up front. But that's not really what happened. It's not obvious that the England pack is any more than average at the moment.


My conclusion this week is similar to last, namely that England has not solved its coaching problem. It looks very different for NZ and Australia - they both have coaching results that are looking quite good.

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