Auckland prop Angus Ta’avao is set to play his 300th first-class game this afternoon, running out at Western Springs Stadium against Wellington in a milestone that has taken him 16 years, five professional teams, more surgeries than he cares to count and a personal loss that has nothing to do with rugby.
The match kicks off at 2.05pm and is part of round two of the 2026 Hilux NPC, which runs from 30 July to 24 October. Ta’avao told RNZ the day would be celebrated with his family and friends in the stands at the Auckland ground.
“It’s pretty special not only for me but like my family and everyone that sort of helped me along the way to get here,” Ta’avao said. “And to do it at home with a festival sort of vibe, just really grateful and it’s special.”
The first of those 300 games came in 2010, when a shy 20-year-old was called into the Auckland squad as injury cover straight off a New Zealand Under 20s campaign. He walked into a changing room containing John Afoa, Benson Stanley and Daniel Braid, players he had grown up watching. Current Auckland team manager Brent Ward was the starting fullback that night. Ta’avao sat on the bench at Eden Park, was sent on with 20 minutes remaining against Taranaki, and made an immediate impression with his carrying and scrummaging as Auckland won 27-13.
“It was a real welcome to the league moment,” he said.
What followed was a career that never took the straight line. Ta’avao has played Super Rugby for the Blues, the Waratahs, the Chiefs and, this season, the Highlanders. He has played provincial rugby for Taranaki and Auckland, winning the title with Taranaki in 2014 and a Super Rugby Pacific championship with the Blues in 2024. He has 22 tests for the All Blacks and scored three tries in them.
The test call-up only came in 2018, seven seasons into his Super Rugby career and in the same year he started without a contract. Unwanted by the Blues, he was picked up by the Chiefs as injury cover. Within months he was making his All Blacks debut off the bench against Argentina in Buenos Aires, coming on in the 51st minute of a 35-17 win. He went on to play every pool match and all three knockout games at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Ta’avao has never fitted the stereotype of a front rower, and he has never tried to. He is loud, funny and unmistakable on a field full of large quiet men, and he says that is exactly why he is still playing at 36.
“Back when I was younger, props were meant to wear a certain boot, and you weren’t supposed to be outspoken, you just got to your work,” he told RNZ. “But I’ve always been a bit different, I’ve always felt like I was a back trapped inside of a forward’s body. I’m an energetic person, I’m a loud person and I won’t apologise for it.”
The body has taken the punishment that comes with 300 games in the tight five. Ta’avao has broken his leg, torn the VMO muscle in his knee, had a scare with his neck and been through multiple operations. He has also been dropped by more than one team.
“I’ve had multiple surgeries, I’ve been dropped from multiple teams, but I think they’ve all been really good lessons for me,” he said. “Resilience, how you look at life, and not getting stuck in a rut.”
That resilience was tested this year in a way no rugby setback could match. Ta’avao’s son Leo died in February, surrounded by his family. Leo was born in 2017 with partial trisomy 13, a rare genetic condition that affected his development, and was named after the lion for his courage.
“You should never bury your own child,” Ta’avao told RNZ. “Losing Leo when we did, we’re still struggling through life, but if one thing that’s been positive is football for me. It’s helped me heal and move forward. We’ll never get over that we’ve lost our boy. But the outpouring of love and support from everyone and the resilience that I built up over the years has definitely sort of helped me move forward.”
He said the family had leaned on each other, and that his son remains part of why he keeps playing.
“I still play for my boy Leo, like, he’s still a big part of our life. He was a driving force behind my whole career up until he passed away, and he will continue to be.”
Ta’avao has thought about retiring, but there is one more number he wants. Today is his 80th appearance for Auckland, and in a career spread across so many jerseys he has never reached 100 games for any single team.
“I’ve played for so many teams but I’ve never cracked 100 for one team, so I wouldn’t mind doing that for Auckland,” he said.
The younger players in the Auckland squad now call him koro, the MΔori word for an older man or elder, though he says the competitive edge has not dulled. “I still want to push and play, and be the best version of myself to succeed.”
He is at peace with the fact that his last All Blacks test came in 2022, and does not expect a phone call while the team is in South Africa.
“I feel like that ship’s probably sailed. I still feel capable, I’ve got some good stuff to give, but there’s some great young talent coming through in the propping stocks of New Zealand,” he said. “So I’m focusing on Auckland, on the Highlanders and then I’ll just focus on supporting the boys.”
RNZ reported that reaching 300 first-class games puts Ta’avao alongside Richie McCaw, Sam Whitelock and Colin Meads, which is rarefied company for a player who spent a good part of his career fighting for a contract. He also has a second career waiting, already appearing as an analyst on rugby broadcasts.
Both teams come into the game looking for their first win of the season. Auckland lost 38-31 to Canterbury in Christchurch on 1 August, with Richie Mo’unga scoring the winner on his NPC return, while Wellington were beaten 52-33 by Hawke’s Bay a day later. Auckland first five-eighth Stephen Perofeta is the competition’s leading points scorer after one round with 16.
Ta’avao, for his part, seems clear about what the 300 games have actually been for.
“I love to bring energy, I love to have a joke and a laugh around,” he said. “The relationships you build, the laughs you have. It just keeps me happy. And I think that if I’m happy, then my body’s feeling a little bit better and I keep trucking on.”
Will you be at Western Springs this afternoon, or watching from home? Tell us your favourite Angus Ta’avao moment in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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