Wellington vs Northland NPC preview: Lineups, form and predictions

Wellington vs Northland NPC round eight preview as the sides meet at the Hnry Stadium. Northland sit within reach of Hawke’s Bay in first place on 27 points. Wellington are currently sitting rock bottom of the table and are still waiting for their first win of the season.

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Wellington vs Northland confirmed lineups

Lineup changes:

W: Falloon, Ropeti and Kirifi are the only survivors in the pack. Matsushita and Burgess come into the back three while the rest of the backline remains the same.

N: Northland rotate most of their pack. Hooper moves into lock and Peita starts at eight. The rest of the pack is rested. Ramm shifts to fullback and Evans remains at 12. The rest of the backline is swapped out. 

Recent Form:

Wellington (Home team): 

Wellington started their game against Canterbury disastrously. Within the first two minutes, they had two lineout, both were picked off. The first was kicked into the corner by Canterbury leading to the second and the second allowed Kellow to cross the line. 

They would concede four more tries in a row before they got on the score sheet from a well worked lineout move in the 37th minute. Straight from the kickoff they tried to play the ball out from deep and search for another score but with the clock in the red Canterbury intercepted to go into the break 40-5 behind.

Canterbury started the second half where they left off and scored within two minutes of the restart. Wellington would score their second in the 56th minute after some good manipulation of the field to get their score under the posts. Less than five minutes later they had another with a hard line off the base of the scrum bringing the score to 47-19.

With the gap so large, Canterbury were able to play some looser stuff and scored three more in the final 15 minutes to leave the game at 66-19. 

Northland (Away team): 

Northland defended the Ranfurly Shield for the second time, having lost on the road the week before. They got off to a brilliant start on 15 minutes as Lachlan Hooper powered his way over the line. After a rolling maul got separated, Sam Nock who was making his 100th NPC game for Northland was able to nip in between the spaces and get over the line. Northland kicked a penalty on the halftime mark to go into the break with a 15-5 lead.

They got their second half off to a strong start spreading the ball wide and sending Ramm over in the corner. Northland hit back with a fantastic try in the corner beating three men to touch it down. Northland kept the gap on the scoreboard growing by scoring again through Hooper to make it 27-10 with 15 minutes to go. With eight minutes to go a brilliant kick through from Rivez Reihaana allowed Brady Rush to seal the game and despite a late Waikato try retained the Ranfurly Shield once again. 

Wellington vs Northland head-to-head record (last five matches):

Northland have won the last two meetings since 2022. They won the meeting last season 43-26.

Predictions

• Northland win.
• 70+ match points.
• Margin of victory by 14 points or less.