Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Watch: TJ Perenara signs off Wellington career with poetic try

TJ Perenara of Wellington scores the try. Image courtesy of Sky Sport NZ.

TJ Perenara’s farewell tour reached a special milestone on Friday night as the halfback donned the Wellington colours one final time in the capital before packing his bags for Japan.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 32-year-old signed a three-year contract with Tokyo Black Rams earlier in the year, forgoing his All Blacks eligibility and signalling an end to his iconic rugby career in New Zealand.

It was an emotional night for Perenara two weeks ago as he ran out onto the Sky Stadium turf for the final time in the black jersey, and Friday night’s NPC quarter-final saw another special moment play out in front of the diehard Wellington faithful.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

Perenara was joined by fellow All Blacks Ruben Love and Billy Proctor in returning for NPC duties in the Lions’ quarter-final clash with Counties Manukau.

The matchup pitted him against counterpart Cam Roigard in the respective No. 9 jerseys, but it was Perenara and Wellington who would own the night as the talent-rich Wellington team ran away as 29-14 victors to advance to the semi-final.

Helping the side carve out that lead was a 50th-minute try by the man himself.

With a Wellington ruck set on Counties’ 22m line, Perenara fired a typically crisp ball to first five-eighth Jackson Garden-Bachop before the ball found one-time All Black Peter Umaga-Jensen.

Player Tackles Won

1
Hugo Plummer
23
2
Caleb Delany
22
3
TJ Perenara
20

The reserve midfielder held the ball for a second to engage Roigard at the line before delivering a skip pass to an unmarked Asafo Aumua on the wing.

ADVERTISEMENT

The electric hooker made the most of the space he was put into by sprinting down the touchline before squaring up the final Counties defender and delivering the try assist to Perenara, running the classic halfback support line to finish the effort.

 

The play inevitably sparked a roar from the Wellington crowd, with fans online labelling the moment a “poetic” one for Super Rugby’s 2nd all-time leading try-scorer.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related

Perenara wasn’t the only All Black to get his name on the scoresheet on the evening, far from it. Billy Proctor provided the pace to finish another of Wellington’s efforts while Cam Roigard picked up where he left off after last week’s two-try performance with another in the capital.

Asafo Aumua’s contribution to Perenara’s try was just one of three key involvements the hooker had in Wellington’s tries. The explosive front-rower combined with forwards and backs alike in attacking strike plays, executing a deceptive reverse move down the blindside off a line out on the 22m line that resulted in a try to All Blacks XV flanker Duplessis Kirifi, also combining with Riley Higgins for the No. 12’s try that opened the scoring in the contest.

Higgins, one of the youngest members of the recently announced All Blacks XV squad, had another starring performance in the quarter-final, further cementing himself as one of the future stars of New Zealand rugby as the country farewells another of its greats.

Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

T
Tom 1 hour ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

I'm not sure about the Earl incident. I recall him missing an important tackle but he's certainly a quick flanker. SB has him cover centre when doing 6-2, fortunately we've never had to see how that would play out.


I'm not getting on board I'm afraid. The fact that England are scoring tries and being competitive despite being so amazingly disorganised and managing to lose every match is even more frustrating. The players front up and make a good account of themselves physically but the defence since Felix Jones is so much less organised. Players are flying out the line all over the place, there is no cohesion at all... And the attack... Literally it's just Marcus Smith.. and a bit of Feyi Waboso. Almost every player in the backline has done nothing offensively because the structure just isn't there for it, there's nothing creative or innovative to challenge the defense. The last 20 mins against the Boks it was just runners on crash ball off the 9, over and over getting smashed behind the gainline and turned over. These players are capable of doing much better.


We did score tries under Eddie but the backs didn't create anything. It worked well for a while but when we no longer had a big pack with the likes of Haskell and the Vunipolas playing well, it stopped working very rapidly. Once we started losing the gainline and couldn't exert so much pressure through bullying, they suddenly all looked clueless and we finished 5th in consecutive six nations.


I'd love to be on board, I've watched every game for the last 15 years and what I see is just super frustrating. It's groundhog day. The same mistakes over and over and no sign of progress. They've pushed some good sides close in this series but there is no acknowledgement of the issues, they keep saying how close they are and they're a growing team etc... he's been in charge for 2 years and has hundreds of caps in the side. This will end poorly, he's not the right guy, but thank you for trying.

10 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING France player ratings vs All Blacks | Autumn Nations Series France player ratings vs All Blacks | Autumn Nations Series
Search