Five emerging players to watch this NPC season

The 50th NPC sees Canterbury enter 2026 as champions with a roster that suggests it could repeat. There are 11 Super Rugby winners in their starting XV for their opening round match against Auckland, with 57-Test All Black Richie Mo’unga poised to come off the bench.

There are discarded All Blacks like Wellington’s Du’Plessis Kirifi and Tasman’s Noah Hotham with a point to prove, and veteran Bryn Hall, who plays his 100th match for North Harbour against the Mako, looking to turn back the clock. Forty-seven debutants have been named across the 14 teams for the opening round.

Who are five players to watch in the NPC across a spectrum of ages, positions, and ambition?

Josh Fusitu’a (Auckland)

The 25-year-old loosehead prop was on a sharp upward trajectory 12 months ago. In the Blues’ 2024 Super Rugby Pacific winning season, he featured in 15 matches, winning 13 times. Just two of those appearances were starts, but his impact from the bench was palpable. In 2025, he started 12 of 16 games as the Blues returned to the semi-finals, narrowly losing to the eventual champions, the Crusaders. Fusitu’a was acknowledged as the Blues Player of the Year. That form saw him selected for the All Blacks XV 2025 tour, where he featured in all three wins against the Barbarians (33-19), England A (31-14), and Uruguay (45-21).

His NPC form hasn’t matched his Super Rugby exploits. Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest and most successful union, lost 15 of their 20 matches over the past two seasons. Fusitu’a has played only 12 of those and featured just twice in Super Rugby Pacific 2026. He suffered a bicep injury requiring surgery in Round 2 and then a hamstring strain upon return.

Wellington’s Siale Lauaki, who covers both sides of the scrum, has enjoyed a rapid ascent into the All Blacks for the tour of South Africa. Fusitu’a was possibly in that position in 2025 as a hard-charging, sturdy scrummaging loosehead.

A strong NPC from the brother of Kiwis league international David Fusitu’a will not only improve Auckland’s fortunes but also revive Fusitu’a’s promise.

Former All Blacks prop and Blues assistant coach Greg Feek reflected onFusitu’a in May 2025.

“We talk about a ceiling – and if it hasn’t been hit yet that’s exciting. By the time he’s 27, 28, the more exposure he gets to big games and other players, the more it will benefit him. The modern-day player is learning things quickly, so if their bodies can handle it and they can cope mentally, then age is not a huge part of it.”

Fixture

Hilux NPC

Canterbury

00:10

1 Aug 26

Auckland

All Stats and Data

Fita Sa (Taranaki)

The zeitgeist of rugby at present favours exceptionally tall, big, multi-faceted locks or backrowers. Standing 203 cm and 125 kg, the Taranaki lock fits that prerequisite.

Born in Christchurch, Sa began his rugby journey in league before moving to Wellington, where he took up union. After returning to Christchurch, he attended Shirley Boys’ High School and Christ’s College, and was selected for the New Zealand Schools wider training squad in 2020. In 2022, he was part of the New Zealand Under-19s team, which won all four matches on a tour of South Africa.

He has played 18 NPC games for Taranaki, seven in the championship-winning 2023 season. He has thrived alongside experienced hookers Ricky Riccitelli and Bradley Slater, All Blacks lock Josh Lord, his brother Jayden Sai, and former Taranaki coach and now All Blacks assistant Neil Barnes. Before the All Blacks Test against France in Christchurch, he was used in training.

Sa won all six matches he played off the bench for the Chiefs in Super Rugby Pacific 2026, making an especially significant impact in a 31-21 win against the Reds in Brisbane, the hosts featuring eight Wallaby forwards.

Nathan Stephens (Waikato)

It took only two minutes on debut for Nathan Stephens to score a try in Waikato’s 38-26 win over Bay of Plenty in Hamilton. With a classy early finish and 10 carries for 93 metres, the young winger, whose early journey to professional rugby resembles that of All Black Sevu Reece, is worth watching.

Stephens arrived in New Zealand in late January 2025, having already represented Fiji Secondary Schools from Queen Victoria School (QVS), the alma mater of Reece. He quickly made his mark by winning the senior boys 100m final in 11.07s at the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Athletics Championships in March.

In the winter he impressed for the Hamilton Boys’ High School First XV, where Reece attended, earning selection for the New Zealand Under-18 Barbarians. In April, after he scored two tries in a 59-12 slaying of Wellington College in a successful defence of the Moascar Cup, Hamilton coach Cam Moorby (brother of All Black Josh Moorby) said. “He is a superstar in the making. We had tried to keep him under wraps, but the cat is out of the bag now. Nathan only needs a glimpse of a gap and he backs himself to take it.”

Stephens joined Hautapu Sports in 2026 and played 11 of their 15 games as they won the Breweries Shield, ending the two-year reign of Hamilton Marist as champions 27-23 in the final. Hautapu won 13 games across the season, scoring 50 or more points in eight of those victories as Stephens saw ample space and scored plenty of tries.

Torian Barnes (Canterbury)

Even as the Blues suffered a woeful demise, losing five consecutive matches, three conceding 50 points, breakout loose forward Torian Barnes maintained his high standards throughout Super Rugby Pacific.

On a wider training squad contract at the start of the season, he finished the Super season with 633 minutes and a debut for the Maori All Blacks in their 38-31 win against Japan XV.

Barnes was explosive with ball in hand and scored three tries. His 134 tackles ranked him inside the top 30 of the competition.

Interestingly, Barnes only started three of his 11 Canterbury NPC games in 2025 but has been named to start in the first round against Auckland. If Barnes can maintain his unique abrasive edge from the Blues, it will be an ideal complement to the contrasting styles of grafter Corey Kellow, increasingly dynamic Dominic Gardiner and New Zealand Under-20s prospect Finn McLeod.

Jimmy Taylor (Southland)

The 19-year-old known affectionately as “Jimmy the Boot” will start at first five-eighth in the 250th match for Southland against Otago in Invercargill on Saturday.

Otago were NPC runners-up in 2025 and their accomplished loose forward trio of Oliver Haig (All Blacks XV), Lucas Casey (Highlanders Rookie of the Year) and Christian Lio-Willie (All Black) will no doubt target the teenager in what could be a torrid afternoon.

But if ever there was a kid for a big occasion, it’s Taylor. In 2023 as a Year 11, he kicked an improbable drop goal from 45 metres to help Southland Boys’ win the National Top Four final against Westlake Boys’ High School 32-29, a monumental upset that made One News. Earlier in the South Island final, his last-minute sideline conversion sank Crusaders Regional champions Christchurch Boys’ High School, 29-28

Taylor showed in the following two seasons he wasn’t a one-hit wonder. He helped Southland win 28 consecutive Southern Schools Rugby Championship matches and in 2025 kicked a 35-metre drop goal to win the final against King’s High School. A New Zealand Schools selection, there’s a lot of Damian McKenzie about Jimmy.

Jimmy’s junior rugby club is Albion-Excelsior in Gore.