Hurricanes winger Ngane Punivai is a transformed player in 2025

Hurricanes winger Ngane Punivai will face his former Super Rugby team on Friday night in his career-best form. 

Punivai played 14 games for the Highlanders between 2020 and 2022, where he struggled to make a big impression. He scored five tries and won five games.

Additionally, he played for the Crusaders in 2019 and the Chiefs in 2023. In five years of Super Rugby, he managed 734 minutes.

In 2025, Punivai has played 11 matches and 602 minutes for the Hurricanes. On April 26, he scored two tries in a season-saving 35-29 win against the Brumbies in Canberra. That success catapulted the Hurricanes into the top six of the standings for the first time in several weeks. The Hurricanes solidified their playoff position the following Saturday with a 35-17 victory over the top-of-the-table Chiefs.

“The Brumbies’ win was a massive confidence boost. We had a bit of a reset after the Force draw and went over to Canberra with nothing to lose and plenty to prove,” Punivai told RugbyPass.

“Scoring tries is nice, but they were created after good work from the boys. Our forwards put in a massive shift.

“The Chiefs had red-hot momentum coming up against us. We expected a test match intensity and trained accordingly. What Bailyn Sullivan did with his four tries in the second half was special.”

Punivai has mounted a special comeback in 2025. Last year, he was struggling to make the Petone Prems. In April, he re-signed for the Hurricanes for two seasons.  Head Coach Clark Laidlaw:

“Super excited to have Ngane extend, he’s playing the best rugby of his career this season and he’s done a huge amount of work on getting his body right and trusting his body to play at the level he’s playing at. He had a tough couple of years with injury and getting the consistency, but he has found that sweet spot.”

“I’m reaping the rewards of getting my body right. It’s been a long journey to feel as good as I do,” Punivai added.

“I was one of those players who would injure a hamstring and when one was right, the other one wasn’t. In 2022, I got long covid. At the time, there wasn’t a lot of research about it, so I overtrained and spent longer out of the game than I should have.

“Better understanding of what works personally in preparation and recovery has been huge. I’ve tried different types of eating and exercises. There has been trial and error but asking what my body prefers rather than what somebody else says has been vital.”

Punivai laughed; he now likes ice baths. His early career never suggested he’d be skating on thin ice.

In 2016, he was a New Zealand Secondary Schools representative out of Christ’s College, Punvai was in the Canterbury NPC team by 2017. He has played 58 games (40 wins) in red and black and scored 19 tries.

“I was going so well out of high school and perhaps took selection in the New Zealand U20s for granted. I expected this natural progression to continue but injury and non-selection hit hard,” Punivai admitted.

“If I could go back in time and talk to a young me today, I would tell him to be better prepared for setbacks and have a Plan B.”

The Hurricanes have won 28 of their 43 games against the Highlanders, including eight on the trot.

The last time the Highlanders beat the Hurricanes was 38-21 in Dunedin on August 15, 2020. Punivai scored a try for the Highlanders.