Noah Hotham: Super Rugby champion at 22, and the third Hotham sibling to represent New Zealand

In the space of a fortnight in July 2024, the Hotham family of Hamilton had a lot to celebrate. On 19 July 2024 their youngest, Noah Hotham, came off the bench in the 36th minute against Fiji at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego and became an All Black, the third of the five siblings to represent New Zealand. Days later his eldest brother won a silver medal at the Touch World Cup in England, and soon after that his sister was in the Black Ferns Sevens side that won Olympic gold in Paris. Eleven months on, at 22, Hotham was the starting halfback when the Crusaders won the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific title.

A family of New Zealand representatives

Hotham was born in Hamilton on 23 May 2003, the youngest of five children. Sport ran through the house. His father, Nigel Hotham, played touch for New Zealand and coached the Hamilton Boys' High School First XV for 21 years until 2024, and his mother played touch for New Zealand and Samoa, the NZ Herald reported. "Touch and athletics were our initial sports that all five of us kids played," Hotham told the Herald, and the family still has its own touch team in Hamilton.

Two of his siblings have represented New Zealand. His eldest brother, Legin Felix-Hotham, has played for the Touch Blacks and won silver at the 2024 Touch World Cup in Nottingham. His sister, Jazmin Felix-Hotham, was in the Black Ferns Sevens side that won bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and she started the Paris 2024 Olympic final in which New Zealand beat Canada for a second straight gold medal. She and Noah are two years apart and grew up training together with their father.

Noah followed them into touch first. He played for the New Zealand Under 16 and Under 18 touch teams, captained the Under 18s according to the Crusaders, and in 2020 played in the Youth Trans Tasman under-18 final against Australia alongside Taha Kemara, later his team-mate at the Crusaders.

Hamilton Boys' High School

At Hamilton Boys' High School, where his father coached the First XV, Hotham was a sports prefect and vice-captain of the First XV, and the Crusaders' profile records that he was part of the sides that won the Super 8 competition in 2019 and 2020. He also won the Condor national secondary schools sevens title in both years, captaining the side in 2020.

In 2019 he was selected for the New Zealand Under 18 Maori team and a Chiefs Under 18 camp. In 2020 he was named in the New Zealand Schools team, though, as the Otago Daily Times noted, it was a paper side that played no games because of Covid-19.

Dunedin, then Nelson

Hotham's plan after school was to follow his older siblings to the University of Otago. Otago chose not to offer him a provincial contract, the ODT reported in April 2021, and Tasman signed him instead. He had trained with the Highlanders that summer, and the plan for 2021 was for him to play for their Under 20 side and the Alhambra-Union club in Dunedin before joining the Mako. He moved to Nelson later in 2021, and the NZ Rugby Museum lists Nelson as the club he was selected from.

Tasman

Tasman named him as a development player in 2021, and after a pre-season appearance his first official NPC match came at the very end of the season, in the Premiership final against Waikato at Waikato Stadium in his home town of Hamilton on 20 November 2021. He came on two minutes from time, and Waikato won 23-20.

In 2022 he made 10 appearances and scored seven tries for Tasman, two of them in a 38-27 win over Taranaki at Trafalgar Park in Nelson on 11 September 2022. By July 2024 he had played 23 games and scored 10 tries for the province, according to the Herald.

New Zealand Under 20

Hotham scored a try on his New Zealand Under 20 debut in 2022, the Crusaders record, and was a member of the side that won that year's Oceania Championship. In June 2023, Under 20 coach Clark Laidlaw named him captain for the World Rugby U20 Championship in South Africa, with Peter Lakai and Taha Kemara as his vice-captains. "Noah, Peter and Taha have showed leadership on the field," Laidlaw said. Hotham played eight times for the Under 20s across the two seasons.

The Crusaders

In July 2022 the Crusaders signed him on a three-year deal. Head coach Scott Robertson described him as "a big explosive halfback who has an exceptional ability to control the game".

He made his Super Rugby debut off the bench at 19, against the Highlanders at AAMI Park in Melbourne during Super Round on 3 March 2023, and the Crusaders won 52-15. Before the match he said it was "pretty surreal" to be in the same room as Codie Taylor and Sam Whitelock. When Robertson gave him his first start later that season, the coach said the youngster had "been superb at training". Hotham played seven games, three of them as a starter, before leaving to captain the Under 20s, and the Crusaders' coaches named him the club's Rookie of the Year for 2023.

In February 2025 the club extended his contract to the end of 2027. "Now Christchurch is my new home," Hotham said. Head coach Rob Penney called him "a remarkable athlete with an incredible desire to develop".

An ankle injury early in the 2025 season kept him out for a time, but he was back for the play-offs. He scored a try in the 32-12 qualifying final win over the Reds at Apollo Projects Stadium in Christchurch on 6 June 2025, and on 21 June 2025 he started the final against the Chiefs at the same ground, opposite another Hamilton Boys' High old boy, Cortez Ratima. 1News wrote that the Crusaders were increasingly well led by their inside back pair of Hotham and first five-eighth Rivez Reihana, and the Crusaders won 16-12 to take the title.

He was the Crusaders' starting No 9 ahead of Kyle Preston in 2026, 1News reported. Their season ended in a semi-final against the Chiefs at FMG Stadium Waikato on 12 June 2026.

All Black number 1216

Hotham's call-up came in July 2024, when TJ Perenara hurt a knee in the 16-15 win over England at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on 6 July 2024 and Robertson, now the All Blacks head coach, brought him in as cover. His father told the Herald that Noah was usually "a fairly cool customer" but was over the moon at the news.

The debut came sooner than anyone expected. Starting halfback Cortez Ratima was hurt on a restart late in the first half in San Diego, and Hotham went on, in front of a crowd of 33,000, as one of six All Blacks debutants that day. He helped set up Ethan de Groot's try in the second half, and the All Blacks won 47-5. At a pre-Olympic training camp, his sister got up at 4.30am to watch.

"I trust him, he backs himself," Robertson said afterwards. "He's an instinctive rugby player and he did that tonight." 1News wrote that Hotham "was a bit of a star". Hotham himself said the debut was surreal, and that seeing his siblings reach their own goals made it "three times as special".

He was in the squad for the 2024 Rugby Championship. When Cam Roigard returned for the northern tour that year, Robertson moved Hotham to the All Blacks XV so that he could "gain some valuable playing time", and he was named on the bench for the 38-24 win over Munster at Thomond Park, Limerick, on 2 November 2024.

In 2025 Hotham was back in the Test squad for the series against France, and he came off the bench in the third Test at FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton, on 19 July 2025, a 29-19 win that completed a 3-0 sweep. He suffered a high ankle sprain during the France series, Reuters reported, and missed the start of the Rugby Championship. His first Test start came against South Africa at Sky Stadium in Wellington on 13 September 2025, but he left the field after nine minutes with a broken fibula, had surgery and missed the rest of the Rugby Championship. South Africa won 43-10.

Back in black, 2026

Dave Rennie, who took charge of the All Blacks in 2026, took three halfbacks on the tour of South Africa that began in August, and Hotham was not one of them. "I guess it's just part of the journey," Hotham told Newstalk ZB. Within weeks the journey took him to Johannesburg. With Roigard managing a calf problem and Ratima a knee injury, the All Blacks called him up on 17 August 2026. The day before, on 16 August 2026, he had started for Tasman in a 50-35 win over Counties Manukau at Navigation Homes Stadium in Pukekohe.

On 25 August 2026 he started at halfback against the Lions at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. The All Blacks were 14-0 down after seven minutes when Hotham scored their first try, finishing a break down the blindside by Emoni Narawa, and they came back from 18 points down in the second half to win 41-35. The match counts as his first non-Test appearance for the All Blacks.

He was not named in the 36-man squad for the November 2026 tour of Scotland, Wales and England.

Style and standing

Hotham describes his game simply. "I do like to pride myself on my running game," he told the Herald in 2024. The coaches who have worked with him have praised the same things: Robertson's explosive halfback with "an exceptional ability to control the game" in 2022, his "instinctive rugby player" in 2024, and Penney's athlete with "an incredible desire to develop" in 2025.

He has also credited his surroundings. At the Crusaders, he said in 2024, learning from players such as David Havili, Richie Mo'unga, Sam Whitelock and Jack Goodhue had rubbed off on him.

Where he is now

Hotham is named in the Crusaders squad for 2027, with Kyle Preston and Mitchell Drummond as the other halfbacks, under new head coach Scott Hansen. He is contracted to the club until the end of 2027, and he turned 23 in May 2026.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data; the tour match is from the NZ Rugby Museum's records. Other figures are from the Crusaders, the NZ Herald and Wikipedia.