Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens: tries in two Ranfurly Shield wins, back from a fractured neck

Twice Taranaki have won the Ranfurly Shield since 2020, and both times Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens scored. The first came at 19, in only his second NPC game, in Christchurch on 19 September 2020. The second came on 6 October 2024 in Nelson, in a match that left him needing emergency surgery on a fractured neck vertebra. By 12 April 2025 he was back at fullback for the Highlanders. Between those two shield days he also won the 2023 NPC with Taranaki, and by November 2026 Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens had 47 Super Rugby games and 16 Super Rugby tries, 25 tries for Taranaki and two more for the All Blacks XV.

Taranaki roots

Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens was born on 3 August 2001, according to the Highlanders, and Wikipedia gives his birthplace as Christchurch. He grew up in Taranaki, where he went to Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth, the school that produced the Barrett brothers and the Highlanders hooker Liam Coltman.

The Highlanders say he was selected for New Zealand Secondary Schools in 2018 and 2019, and that he had a brief spell with the Parramatta Eels of the NRL. His provincial club was Tukapa, according to NZ Rugby History. He also spent time with the All Blacks Sevens, in 2021 according to the Highlanders, and the honours list of the Central North Island school competition records him under New Zealand sevens.

A shield in his first season

Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens began his professional career with Taranaki in 2020, as a 19-year-old, and NZ Rugby History records him playing 11 games that season, which was every one of Taranaki's matches. The first was a 36-29 win over Bay of Plenty in Inglewood on 13 September 2020. In the second week of the competition, Taranaki went to Rugby League Park in Christchurch to challenge Canterbury for the Ranfurly Shield on 19 September 2020. The young wing scored in the sixth minute and again in the 27th, and Taranaki won 23-22 to take the shield. They lost it to Otago in Inglewood on 27 September 2020, but the teenager's season kept going.

He scored again against Northland in Whangārei on 3 October 2020, Auckland in Inglewood on 10 October 2020 and Southland in Invercargill on 17 October 2020, twice against Waikato in Hamilton on 25 October 2020, and once more against Manawatū in Feilding on 8 November 2020. His eight tries in 11 games were the third most in the 2020 competition, behind only Salesi Rayasi and Ash Dixon.

In 2021, the season Taranaki won the NPC Championship division, he scored three tries in 10 games, two of them in a 55-28 win over Bay of Plenty at Tauranga Domain on 26 September 2021.

The Blues

His NPC form took him to the Blues, who named him in their squad for 2021. He made his Super Rugby debut off the bench in a 48-21 win over the Waratahs at Eden Park in Auckland on 22 May 2021, a 10-minute cameo in the Blues' Trans-Tasman campaign. He played six games in 2022 and six more in 2023, scoring his first Super Rugby tries in a 30-17 win over the Western Force at Eden Park on 26 March 2023 and a 45-26 win over the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on 19 May 2023. The Highlanders noted in 2023 that an abundance of talented outside backs at the Blues had limited his game time.

NPC champion

The 2023 NPC was the one he remembers best. Asked on his Highlanders profile for his favourite rugby memory, he named winning the NPC with Taranaki that year.

He played 13 games and scored six tries, including two in a 54-21 win over North Harbour in New Plymouth on 30 September 2023 and one in a 34-18 quarter-final win over Tasman, also in New Plymouth, on 7 October 2023. In the final against Hawke's Bay at Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth on 21 October 2023, he started on the right wing and played the full match as Taranaki won 22-19.

Highlanders debut, and the day in Nelson

On 5 July 2023 the Highlanders announced that he would join them for 2024. "For me it's exciting to join such a proud club," he said.

He made an instant impression. In his first game for the club, against Moana Pasifika at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on 24 February 2024, he scored twice in a 35-21 win. He went on to play all 15 of the Highlanders' games that season, 13 of them as the starting fullback, according to NZ Rugby History, and scored eight tries. Two came against Moana Pasifika at Teufaiva Stadium in Nuku'alofa on 4 May 2024, in a 28-17 win, and one against his old team, the Blues, at Super Round at AAMI Park in Melbourne on 1 March 2024, although the Blues won 37-29.

Back with Taranaki for the 2024 NPC, he scored four more tries, the last of them in the Ranfurly Shield challenge against Tasman at Trafalgar Park in Nelson on 6 October 2024. Taranaki won 42-29 to take the shield for the second time in his career.

He was injured in that match. Taranaki announced that X-rays on his return to New Plymouth had shown a fracture of one of his neck vertebrae, and that he had undergone emergency surgery on the Monday evening, with further surgery to follow, Fijivillage reported. He had been hurt late in the first half, passed a head injury assessment, came back on and scored in the second half before leaving the field.

What followed was, by his own account to the NZ Herald, eight weeks in a neck brace, a return to running in February 2025 and a long rehabilitation in Taranaki and then Dunedin. He also took up photography during his recovery.

The comeback

Six months after his surgery, and after one club game, he returned for the Highlanders against the Fijian Drua in Dunedin on 12 April 2025. He started at fullback, played the full 80 minutes and set up three tries in a 43-20 win, the NZ Herald reported. "It genuinely felt like I was back home," he said. He scored his only try of 2025 against Moana Pasifika in Dunedin on 4 May 2025, in a 34-29 loss.

On 29 May 2025 the Highlanders re-signed him, with Caleb Tangitau, until the end of the 2028 season. "Since coming down here I have been made to feel really at home," he said. Head coach Jamie Joseph described the pair as "players who can turn a match in an instant".

His form in 2025, the Highlanders said, earned him a place in the All Blacks XV squad, named in October 2025 for a northern tour. He started in the back three against the Barbarians at Gtech Community Stadium in Brentford, west London, on 1 November 2025, when the All Blacks XV came from 19-0 down to win 33-19. In the tour's final match, against Uruguay in Béziers on 16 November 2025, he scored two tries in a 45-21 win as the All Blacks XV finished unbeaten.

2026

In the 2026 Super Rugby season he played 12 games, regularly in the starting side, and scored five tries. One of them, in the sixth minute against the Hurricanes in Dunedin on 20 March 2026, was the Highlanders' only try in a 50-7 loss. He also scored in a 31-26 win over the Waratahs in Dunedin on 9 May 2026. On 2 May 2026, in Ba, he was one of four players with links to Fiji in the Highlanders' starting side against the Fijian Drua, Fijivillage noted.

For Taranaki he played 12 games and scored four tries in the 2026 NPC, including one in a 50-31 quarter-final win over North Harbour at North Harbour Stadium in Albany on 10 October 2026, before Canterbury beat Taranaki 38-28 in the semi-final in Christchurch on 18 October 2026.

Style and standing

The Highlanders describe a back who covers wing and fullback with "flair and vision", and their May 2025 re-signing announcement said his mid-season return in 2025 had "added some real punch" to their attack. Joseph's phrase for him and Tangitau was game-changers.

He has not played Test rugby for any country.

Looking to 2027

Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens is one of seven outside backs in the Highlanders' 2027 squad, named on 28 October 2026, and is contracted to the club until the end of the 2028 season. The Highlanders assemble on 26 November 2026 and open their 2027 campaign against the Fijian Drua in Fiji on 13 February 2027.

Career at a glance

Taranaki figures combine NZ Rugby History for 2020 to 2025 (55 games, 21 tries) with RugbyPass for 2026 (12 games, four tries); RugbyPass lists six games for him in 2025 where NZ Rugby History lists seven. Super Rugby figures are RugbyPass's and NZ Rugby History's (to 2025) and match Wikipedia's try records. All Blacks XV figures are NZ Rugby History's.