Billy Proctor: Hurricanes captain, Super Rugby champion and, like his brother, a try on his Test debut

Six years apart, two brothers from Wellington pulled on the All Blacks' No 13 jersey for the first time, and both of them scored a try. Matt Proctor did it in Tokyo in 2018. His younger brother, Billy Proctor, did it in San Diego in July 2024, and has since played 13 Tests, captained the Hurricanes and started at centre in their 60-5 Super Rugby final win in June. This is the story of the younger Proctor: the St Pat's Town schoolboy who signed the longest contract in Hurricanes history as a teenager, and who is now working his way back from a broken shoulder blade.

A rugby family in Wellington

Proctor was born in Wellington on 14 May 1999 and is of Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāpuhi descent.

Rugby runs right through the family. The NZ Rugby Museum's profile on allblacks.com records that his father, Phil, was a New Zealand junior representative and played tighthead prop for Wellington. His older brother Matt, six years his senior, went through the same school, played 66 games in the Hurricanes midfield between 2013 and 2019, and became All Black No 1177 on the 2018 end-of-year tour before a career in England with Northampton. ClubRugby.nz notes that another older brother played for Tasman.

The Proctor boys could run, too. According to ClubRugby.nz, Billy holds the electronically timed under-14 hurdles record at the McEvedy Shield athletics, 11.89 seconds in 2013, while Matt holds the open hurdles record, 14.74 seconds in 2010.

RUGBE could not find a published account of his junior club rugby before secondary school.

St Pat's Town

Proctor went to St Patrick's College in Wellington, known as St Pat's Town. In 2015 he scored for the First XV in their 19-9 win over Scots College in the Wellington First XV Premiership final, and the Hurricanes' player profile describes him as a former New Zealand Secondary Schools representative.

When he made his Test debut he became, by ClubRugby.nz's count, the 14th All Black from St Pat's Town, a list that includes Jerry Collins, Paul Markham, James Ryan and Maurice Brownlie.

Marist St Pat's and a record contract

Out of school in 2017, Proctor joined the Marist St Pat's club and made his premier debut at centre against Petone in the second round of the Swindale Shield. He played 17 premier games for the club that first season and 36 in all. When he was capped he became the first old boy of St Pat's Town to make the All Blacks for the first time while representing Marist St Pat's.

He also played three games for Wellington in 2017, the season the Lions won the Championship division with a 59-45 extra-time win over Bay of Plenty in the final.

In September 2018, still a teenager, he signed a five-year contract with the Hurricanes. ClubRugby.nz notes it was the longest deal the club had offered a player since its formation in 1996. "The length of my contract gives me some real security," he said at the time.

That year he played seven games for the New Zealand Under 20 side and scored the first try of a 42-10 win over Wales at the World Rugby U20 Championship in France, where New Zealand finished fourth. He was back in the U20s in 2019, when the tournament was held in Argentina and New Zealand finished seventh. His two seasons brought 12 games and two tries.

Wellington

The Hurricanes' profile credits his early form for Wellington with making him the Lions' first-choice No 13 by season's end. In 2019 he split 12 games between fullback and centre, scored four tries, two of them in a 34-15 win over Auckland at Eden Park, and started at centre in the Premiership final, which Wellington lost 31-14 to Tasman in Nelson.

In 2022 Wellington won both of the provincial game's big prizes. They took the Ranfurly Shield off Hawke's Bay with a 19-12 win in Napier in September, then went to Christchurch for the final. On 22 October 2022 at Rugby League Park, Proctor started at centre in a side captained by Du'Plessis Kirifi, with Ruben Love at fullback and Peter Lakai at No 8. Love scored the first try, Wellington beat Canterbury 26-18, and the competition's report called it the NPC title and Ranfurly Shield double.

Proctor played 63 games for Wellington between 2017 and 2024, scoring 67 points, according to Wikipedia and the New Zealand Rugby History database. Test rugby kept him out of the Lions' 2024 final, a 23-20 win over Bay of Plenty: that same day, 26 October 2024, he was scoring for the All Blacks against Japan in Yokohama.

The Hurricanes

Proctor's Hurricanes debut came in the 2019 season opener against the Waratahs at Brookvale Oval in Sydney on 16 February 2019, a 20-19 win. He came off the bench, still 19, as Hurricane No 260. Hurricane No 259, Du'Plessis Kirifi, debuted in the same game and scored the winning try.

From 2020 he was a regular, with 12 games that season and 13 in 2021, and by the end of 2024 he had 61 Hurricanes games and 17 tries. In May 2024 the NZ Herald described him as one of the form midfielders in Super Rugby Pacific: he had played eight of the Hurricanes' first ten games that season and won all eight, and he had just captained the side to a 41-12 win over the Waratahs. Assistant coach Bryn Evans told the Herald: "He works. He's constantly working." Proctor, Evans added, "says a lot with his actions on the field."

In February 2025 the Hurricanes named four captains, Proctor, Asafo Aumua, Kirifi and Brad Shields, as Ngā Kaitiaki, the guardians, with the armband passed between them week to week. The club noted that Proctor and Aumua had both led the side at various times in 2024. An Achilles injury then kept Proctor out for the first nine weeks of the 2025 season. He returned off the bench in a draw with the Western Force in Perth, started the following week in a win over the Brumbies in Canberra, and re-signed with New Zealand Rugby through to 2027. Head coach Clark Laidlaw said Proctor had "grown and matured into an outstanding professional".

For 2026 Kirifi and Jordie Barrett became co-captains, with Proctor, Aumua and Shields beside them in a five-man leadership group. The Hurricanes finished top of the table, beat the Brumbies 66-12 and the Blues 57-21 at home in the play-offs, and on 20 June 2026 beat the Chiefs 60-5 in the final in Wellington, a record margin for a Super Rugby final. Proctor started at centre outside Jordie Barrett, with Love at first five-eighth and Kirifi at openside. It was the Hurricanes' second title and their first since 2016. Wikipedia credited him with 83 games and 135 points for the club by July.

Four tries in Kumamoto

Proctor toured with the All Blacks XV in July 2023, and in the second match, against the Brave Blossoms at Egao Kenko Stadium in Kumamoto on 15 July 2023, he scored four tries in a 41-27 win. Three came in the first half. The first finished a break by his Hurricanes team-mate Ruben Love; for the second, 1News reported, he dropped his shoulder and powered through from close range; the fourth came off a short pass from Stephen Perofeta early in the second half.

"It was a few catches and put-downs," Proctor said afterwards, as quoted by ClubRugby.nz. He had never scored a hat-trick before, he added, so four was "pretty cool".

He had already worn the Māori All Blacks jersey by then. His debut came against Moana Pasifika in Hamilton on 5 December 2020, Moana Pasifika's first match, and he scored the Māori side's third try in a 28-21 win. He played five games for the Māori between 2020 and 2022.

The All Blacks

Proctor was named in Scott Robertson's first All Blacks squad in June 2024. After the two Tests against England he was picked to start at centre against Fiji at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on 19 July 2024 (20 July 2024 in New Zealand), the All Blacks' first official Test in the city. He was one of six debutants in the 23, with Anton Lienert-Brown inside him.

He scored, the All Blacks won 47-5, and the reviews were warm. Patrick McKendry of 1News called him "solid on attack, defence and as a distributor", and Liam Napier wrote in the NZ Herald that "Proctor looked at home from the outset", noting he was wearing the same jersey his brother had worn six years earlier. Matt's only Test, against Japan in Tokyo on 3 November 2018, was in the No 13 jersey too, and he scored in a 69-31 win.

Billy started again against Japan, in Yokohama on 26 October 2024, and scored again in a 64-19 win, so both brothers now have Test tries against Japan.

2025 brought nine Tests, eight of them as the starting centre. He started both July wins over France, in Dunedin and Wellington, and five of the six Rugby Championship Tests. In Buenos Aires on 23 August 2025 he scored, but Argentina won 29-23, their first win over the All Blacks on home soil. He was also in the side beaten 43-10 by South Africa in Wellington on 13 September 2025, the heaviest defeat by margin in All Blacks history. On the end-of-year tour he came off the bench in the 25-17 win over Scotland at Murrayfield and started the 33-19 loss to England at Twickenham.

Dave Rennie took over as head coach in 2026. Proctor came off the bench in Rennie's first Test, a 34-32 win over France in Christchurch on 4 July 2026, and started at centre against Italy in Wellington a week later, a 47-17 win in which Leroy Carter started on the wing and Love at first five-eighth. That took him to 13 Tests, 11 of them as a starter, with ten wins and three tries.

The broken shoulder

Proctor travelled to South Africa for the Greatest Rivalry tour. On 7 August 2026, in the second half of the 38-21 win over the Stormers in Cape Town, he was hurt in a clear-out at a ruck. Scans showed a fractured shoulder blade. The All Blacks said it would not need surgery but would take about 10 to 12 weeks to heal, and he flew home on the same plane as the injured hooker George Bell. "I'm devastated for him," Rennie said, and when the All Blacks confirmed Richie Mo'unga as his replacement a few days later, the coach added: "He has had a great season so this is frustrating for him." Rennie said he hoped to see Proctor fit in time for selection for the end-of-year tour.

An NZ Rugby injury update on 21 September 2026 put his likely return to play at four to six weeks. He was not named in the 36-man squad for the northern tour on 27 October 2026, and that announcement did not list him among the injured. RUGBE could not find a published report of his return to the field.

Style and standing

The Museum profile describes him as a centre "known for his strong defensive presence and attacking flair". The people who have played and coached alongside him tend to start with the defence. TJ Perenara, comparing him with Matt in 2020, said: "Billy is a lot like his brother. He's very good defensively." Perenara added that in attack, "you put him in half a gap, he'll take it."

Proctor himself has always pointed back to the club that signed him as a schoolboy. "I've pretty much learned everything I know about rugby and life at the Hurricanes," he told ClubRugby.nz in 2023. Laidlaw, re-signing him in 2025, put it this way: "We genuinely feel like his best rugby is ahead of him."

Where he is now

Proctor is contracted to New Zealand Rugby through to the end of 2027 and is named in the Hurricanes' 2027 squad, announced on 28 October 2026, as the club sets out to defend its title. Players not with the All Blacks report for pre-season on 26 November 2026. The All Blacks, meanwhile, play Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday 8 November 2026 (NZ time), then Wales and England, with the Nations Championship finals weekend in London at the end of the month.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026. Provincial and Super Rugby figures are from Wikipedia and the New Zealand Rugby History database.