After a breakthrough 2025 season with the Crusaders, Ioane Moananu was left out in the cold by New Zealand’s Super Rugby clubs, with no top squad offers on the table. That left the hooker searching for new opportunities offshore, and doing so with a chip on his shoulder.
Moananu was generating quite the buzz midway through the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season, with a stretch of four tries in three games while starting in the absence of All Blacks Codie Taylor and George Bell for the Christchurch-based club.
With Bell and Taylor locked in to remain in Crusaders colours on long-term deals, Moananu needed to fight off the advances of any emerging talent to claim the club’s third hooker spot for 2026. Crusaders selectors, though, ultimately decided that 2025 New Zealand U20 captain, Manumaua Letiu, was the man for that job.
A Wider Training Group contract was offered, but Moananu declined and continued searching for a full-squad contract.
“I was looking for a contract in New Zealand to stay back at home, but there was nothing there, just a few injury contracts,” Moananu recently told Rugby.com.au.
“I still wanted to give Super Rugby a good crack. I played so many games last year with the Crusaders, and I thought I did pretty well.
“The only other country that’s in Super Rugby is Australia, so I was like ‘let me reach out to all the teams in Australia and see who would take me’ and fortunately enough, we reached out to Dan (McKellar, NSW Waratahs coach) and he was pretty keen on having me, which was pretty cool.”
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Super Rugby Pacific
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The move came as a surprise to many New Zealand fans, and speculation over Wallabies eligibility quickly came to the fore of conversations online. But in an interview on Newstalk ZB earlier this year, the 24-year-old confirmed he has no Australian family or ties that would grant him Wallabies eligibility.
Instead, the move was entirely about putting himself in a position where he can compete for playing time, rather than waiting on the periphery for injuries to strike.
Now, Moananu is licking his lips, thinking about all the chances he’ll get to square off with the Kiwi clubs who wouldn’t sign him.
“100 per cent, that’s the chip on my shoulder that I carry with me all the time now,” he said.
“I don’t think they didn’t want me. I think it’s just the way the contracting works, but I just use it as motivation now. Every day I turn up, it’s just that chip on my shoulder that motivates me to get better.
“When I do play those NZ teams in 2026, it will be fun, man.
“When I was signed, Dave [Porecki] was still here and I thought I was going to be compete and learn off him being a seasoned Wallaby, but then he retired.
“When they signed Folau [Fainga’a], I was like ‘sweet, I have someone that I can trust and learn off as well.’ I feel like I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m still young, I’ve got a lot to learn in this game.”
Having touched down in Sydney, the excitement of joining a talented Waratahs group has hit, and Moananu sees a bright future for the club.
“I think we’ve got the talent, we’ve got coaches who are real smart and who know their stuff, but the one thing that I believe makes a championship team is the genuine connections and just how close this team is and how everyone knows each other.
“Not only do we know each other by names and stuff, but on a deeper level, you notice the players here are real close with each other and love spending time with each other. They’ve got that deep connection, and when it comes to the last five-ten minutes, when it’s tough, and you look across, and you see your brother in that jersey, you want to die for them.
“They’ve really got that connection here, and I can see it in the team, which is pretty cool.”