{"id":286535,"date":"2026-02-16T09:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T09:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286535\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T09:29:07","slug":"dalton-papalii-blues-captain-to-depart-after-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286535\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalton Papali\u2019i: Blues captain to depart after 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NZ Herald<\/p>\n<p>16 Feb, 2026 07:50 AM2 mins to read<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.Subscribe now<\/p>\n<p>\u200c<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"flex cursor-pointer items-center gap-1.5 text-black\" data-test-ui=\"social-link--bookmark-above\" aria-label=\"bookmark\" id=\"social-link--bookmark-above\">Save<\/a>Share this articleCopy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n<p data-test-ui=\"figure__caption\">Dalton Papali&#8217;i is on track to play more than 100 matches for the Blues before continuing his career in France. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/nzme.co.nz\/advertise\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Dalton Papali\u2019i, captain of the Blues, will depart the club after the 2026 Super Rugby season to take up an opportunity with French Top 14 team Castres Olympique.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n         Papali\u2019i, who debuted for the Blues in 2017, said the decision was extremely tough to make but the timing felt right at<br \/>\n         this stage of his career.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"iSXYlpzztwWbxuk\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis club means everything to me. I grew up dreaming of wearing the Blues jersey and representing my country. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to live that dream for a long time,\u201d Papali\u2019i said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iSXYlpzztwWbxuk\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe Blues gave me my chance, backed me and helped me become the player and person I am. This was a really hard decision, but the opportunity in France is something that works well for where I\u2019m at in my career with my young family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iSXYlpzztwWbxuk\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m fully committed to finishing my time here the right way. I love this club, the people and our supporters, and I\u2019ll keep giving everything I\u2019ve got into the season ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NZ Herald 16 Feb, 2026 07:50 AM2 mins to read Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2246,74,33339,13381,159533,18836,54761,138465,11775,111,139,69,159534,6452,159532,6327,6926,213,313,199,7187,61,1533,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-286535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-2246","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-blues","11":"tag-captain","12":"tag-castres","13":"tag-club","14":"tag-dalton","15":"tag-depart","16":"tag-french","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-olympique","21":"tag-opportunity","22":"tag-papalii","23":"tag-rugby","24":"tag-season","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-super","27":"tag-take","28":"tag-team","29":"tag-to","30":"tag-will","31":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}