{"id":653058,"date":"2026-05-06T10:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T10:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653058\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T10:04:14","slug":"stag-gets-second-moana-pasifika-start-of-2026-super-rugby-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653058\/","title":{"rendered":"Stag gets second Moana Pasifika start of 2026 Super Rugby season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Southland Stag Faletoi Peni will start at second five-eighth against the Hurricanes on Saturday night. Photo: MOANA PASIFIKA\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Southland midfielder Faletoi Peni has been handed his second start of the 2026 Super Rugby season.<\/p>\n

Peni will start at second five-eighth for Moana Pasifika when it hosts the Hurricanes at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old went from almost quitting rugby to winning four consecutive championships in club rugby, to some powerhouse performances at NPC level for the Stags, before he then made his test debut for Samoa in their 48-10 victory over Brazil last year, as part of their 2027 World Cup qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n

In round two this season, Peni made his Super Rugby debut when he started at second five-eighth against the Hurricanes, although he has not seen a lot of game time since.<\/p>\n

He did impress coming off the bench last Saturday night against the Blues and will now partner a former Stag, Solomon Alaimalo, in the midfield this Saturday night.<\/p>\n

As has been a constant during the past couple of Super Rugby seasons, Southland\u2019s Semisi Tupou Ta\u2019eiloa will start at No 8 for Moana Pasifika against the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

RELATED READING: The Comeback: From 140kg first five to Super Rugby player<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Southland halfback Nic Shearer returns to the Highlanders 23 for their showdown against the Waratahs in Dunedin on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Shearer started in two games against Moana Pasifika and Brumbies before being overlooked for the past three games.<\/p>\n

Shearer joins the bench for Saturday\u2019s game with Adam Lennox getting the start in the No 9 jersey.<\/p>\n

Fellow Stags Ethan de Groot, Jack Taylor, and Mitchell Dunshea will start in the forward pack, with Sean Withy again named on the bench.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game is set to kick-off at 4.35pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southland Stag Faletoi Peni will start at second five-eighth against the Hurricanes on Saturday night. Photo: MOANA PASIFIKA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-653058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}