Poneke: Lance Purdie

Loyalty and longevity go hand in hand at the Poneke RFC. At the heart of the club are the Moananu brothers, one or more of who has featured almost continuously in their Premier side for the past decade and a half.

Oldest brother Fili played about 30 games at centre for them in the mid 1990s, middle brother Fa'atoto first played Premier rugby against MSP in 1994, while the younger twins, Misipalauni and Misiluni made their Premier debuts in 1997, against the Wellington Axemen and MSP respectively.

Throughout the Moananu's association with the club, Poneke has won the Swindale Shield once in 2002 and won two Jubilee Cups, in 1996 and 2003, and appeared in six of eight Jubilee Cup finals between 1999-2006 and five of seven contested at Westpac Stadium between 2000 and 2006. Fa'atoto (fullback), Misipalauni (second five-eighth) and Misiluni (tighthead prop) all played in the winning 2003 side together, beating MSP 26-22 in the final.

The younger three brothers are still playing regularly for the club, Misipalauni is in his second year as captain of the Premiers and Misiluni is at prop, although he has missed the last three weeks through injury, and Fa'atoto is mainly in the Senior 1sts this year but played the second half for the Premiers against Petone in their 125th Jubilee weekend clash in round five.

In fact, Misipalauni is set to equal Fa'atoto's family record of 165 Premier caps for Poneke this week against Tawa, and then likely pass it in the first round of the Jubilee Cup the following week. Meanwhile, Misiluni is not far behind on 142 caps for the side, making the number of Poneke Premier Caps for the three brothers at 471. Poneke caps are also only awarded for run-on appearances in the starting XV, not off the bench.

There are two other centenarians playing in the Poneke Premiers at the moment, both of who also played in the 2003 Jubilee Cup final win over MSP. These are blindside flanker Peter Savelio (108 caps) and wing Evan Belford (139). The highest capped Poneke player is Grant Griffiths (287), while the current coaches John Jackson and Richard Watt both played over 200 games.

The Moananu brothers, out of Wellington College, have played representative rugby and played overseas. Fa'atoto played for Wellington in 1995, 1997 and 1998 and Misiluni in 1998. Both Misipalauni (2002-2004) and Misiluni (2002) played for the Horowhenua-Kapiti NPC side, while Misipalauni spent the 2001/02 Northern season playing in Scotland and joined Fa'atoto for a short stint in Cambridge in England.