![\"Nani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2a9e9c_88d4a8a60e6e4bdb9c4aacc9c9ee08c6~mv2.jpg\")
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Nani Laumape will be back at the Hurricanes for Super Rugby Pacific 2026 PHOTO: LINTOTT PHOTOGRAPHY<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes have signed former All Black Ngani Laumape for the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season.<\/p>\n
Five years on from his last outing for the Hurricanes he will be part of the side again in the season-opening clash Friday, 20 February against the side he last played for,Moana Pasifika..<\/p>\n
It comes after Laumape spent six seasons as a Hurricane between 2016 and 2021, during which time the 32-year-old midfielder made 85 appearances and scored 49 tries for the franchise, won a Super Rugby title in 2016, and became a 15-test All Black.<\/p>\n
Laumape went on to play for French club Stade Fran\u00e7ais and the Kobelco Kobe Steelers in Japan Rugby League One, before his signing with Moana Pasifika was announced in June.<\/p>\n
Back in New Zealand, the Anzac XV representative and former Warriors NRL convert has resumed service with Manawat\u016b in the NPC and is eagerly anticipating his return to the Cake Tin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWellington will always be home, and the Hurricanes will always hold a special place in my heart. I\u2019m grateful for everything they have done for me and my family,\u201d Laumape said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all mates off the field but once the game starts, it\u2019s just business as usual. It\u2019s going to be exciting to play against the Canes, this time honouring my Tongan heritage and representing Moana Pasifika.\u201d<\/p>\n
After playing in front of a large crowd during last season\u2019s final home match, a 64-12 win over Moana Pasifika, Hurricanes head coach Clark Laidlaw is excited to have Laumape and Moana Pasifika back in Wellington for his side\u2019s first match of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to welcoming Moana, who had an amazing season last year and went super close to making the playoffs,\u201d Laidlaw said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped generate the biggest crowd and support out of all our home games last year. It was a great atmosphere and one of the games where we played some of our best rugby of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure Moana will be strong again and look to get their campaign off to a fast start. With Ngani returning, and it being the first time he\u2019s played in New Zealand for a few years, I\u2019m sure the crowd and the two teams will be excited to get into it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly for us, with it being our first game and being at home, it\u2019s something we\u2019ll really focus on through the pre-season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nani Laumape will be back at the Hurricanes for Super Rugby Pacific 2026 PHOTO: LINTOTT PHOTOGRAPHY The Hurricanes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-98036","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\/98036","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=98036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}